Sundowning: Understand The Causes, and Tips to Make it Better

What causes sundowning, and is there anything you can do to decrease the effect? Listen and get show notes: https://bit.ly/3CbLHETSundowning is a behavior change in people who become agitated, uncooperative, hallucinate, pace, or have increased confusion as the sun goes down.  It has been found that these behaviors do not only occur for elders with dementia, but also older adults without the disease, young people, and older dogs. In this Episode:01:44 - Recipe: Mississippi Chicken02:13 - Notable Deaths from 202405:13 - Sundowning - What is It?08:38 - Things that Make Sundowning Behavior Worse09:17 - What Can Help Sundowning?10:43 - Can Dogs Get Sundowning Behaviors?14:33 - Ranata Suzuki - One Piece of Advice to Hold16:00 - OutroUnderstanding SundowningThe behaviors that are associated with sundowning are confusion, anxiety, agitation or aggressiveness with increased motor activity (e.g. pacing, wandering), and yelling, all of which get worse as the sun is going down. So what causes sundowning? Read more below.The Link to Circadian RhythmThe current thinking is that these sundowning behaviors occur at sunset is because of an impairment of the circadian rhythm from damage to the sleep-promoting center in the hypothalamus and decreased production of melatonin. Listen to learn more about the cause and why it is important.Is There a Way to Help Decrease Sundowning?We talk about several ways to help, from adjusting light exposure through the day, to adjusting the environment and activities, to possible medications. We also talk about additional physical conditions that can contribute to sundowning that you can watch for such as urinary tract infections and dehydration. Listen to the podcast for a detailed list of ideas.Related Episodes:S3E50: Caring for a Partner with DementiaS2E7: Nonpharmacological Management of DementiaS3E47: Frontotemporal Dementia Part 1 – What Is FTD?S4E16: Understanding Vascular Dementia, the Second-Most Common FormS1E48: Alzheimer’s DiseaseS5E37: Memory and Alzheimer’s DiseaseS2E1: Lewy Body DiseaseS1E34: Huntington’s DiseaseSupport the showConnect with Us: Email our Host: [email protected]  Website: https://every1dies.org: Find show notes, links and expanded resources Follow Us: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube