People with Sundowner’s Syndrome can exhibit any number of symptoms. Of course, the key is that the symptoms occur in the late afternoon or evening, or in the case of someone with more severe dementia, the symptoms worsen at night. These symptoms, which are also symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease and other types of dementia, include:
- Rapid mood changes
- Anger
- Crying
- Agitation
- Pacing
- Fear
- Depression
- Stubbornness
- Restlessness
- Rocking
The most difficult symptoms to deal with are:
- Hallucinations
- Hiding Things
- Paranoia
- Violence
- Wandering
These symptoms can be dangerous, both for the person with the Syndrome and for anyone around them.
You may find that your loved one is suddenly seeing angels in the room or believes you have stolen something. They may not recognize you or become terrified at the thought of your leaving even for a moment. The behavior is illogical and irrational, but bear in mind that someone with Sundowner’s cannot control these behaviors.
Wandering is especially dangerous because the person with Sundowner’s will suddenly be missing and may not know where he or she is going or why. Without identification, people with the Syndrome have become lost and unable to find their way back home.
People with Sundowner’s Syndrome may also “shadow” you, following you around and doing everything you do. They might ask you questions over and over or interrupt you when you’re speaking to someone else. They may lose their full language abilities, and abstract thoughts may become especially difficult for them to comprehend.
Keep in mind that if someone has a paranoid or hallucinatory episode, there’s no point in trying to convince them they’re wrong. It simply won’t work, and they will most likely not remember the episode in the morning.
January 28th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
[...] has been getting worse over the last couple months. He seems to have what they call the “Sundowners Syndrome“. My mom, who is 82 years old and suffers from Parkinson’s and diabetes, has been my [...]
February 8th, 2009 at 7:45 am
My mother has just begun sundowning; she has been in and out of the hospital for the past year due to cancer and it’s side effects. The SD symptoms came on her suddenly and affect her with very very real hallucinations and paranoid thoughts. She remembers them too! She always feels foolish when she is herself again but expresses how very real it all seems at the time. She has tried to remove her IV”s and wound vac. If this continues they may use restraints or even haladol (sp). I haven’t researched that yet but I do remember that it is some form of strong anti psychotic med.
I have learned to not try to convince her she is hallucinating but emotionally it is very difficult.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:05 am
I am sorry to hear about your Mother. I have an 81 year old Mother and she is getting more and more oobstinate. She just wrecked her car and she is on Class A narcotics on a daily basis, but I cant ger her to stop driving. Worrying about her drove my blood pressure up to 197/92 and I have decided I I have to let her do what she wants. Is is difficult to deal with this, but I don’t thing that she has sundowners syndrome maybe early dementia. Hope that things work out for you.
March 19th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Smoothie please don’t give up on stopping your Mom from driving. I moved my Mother and Father near me last summer. My Dad has been in hospitals both in their old hometown and mine since that time. Daddy is no longer an issue but Mother continues to insist she could drive. Their geriontologist tells me that there is a test that can be given to “show them” they are nolonger capable. A local professional was killed here recently when a 79 year old plowed into him pushing him into oncoming traffic. Authorities are considering pressing charges – what a tragedy for all.
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I just took over the care for my dady in Feb. He had been involved in a accident & driving the wron way in traffic. He lived alone & would let no one know his business, nor be power of attorney. We brought him to the city where we live & placed him in Asst. Living. He is 91 & soon learned how to open their fire door. We had to move him to a locked memory unit. He is angry, defiant, forgetful, distrusts everyone, bags up his belonging at night. He was assessed with Alzheimers/dementia upon going to the new place. Now is exhibiting signs of sundowning. His main big worry is his money. He asks about it every few minutes. We gave him a big party there for his bd & two days later, he had completely forgotten it & the 11 family members that came. It is so sad.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Smoothie you can petition the state drivers license bureau or her doctor, sometimes anonymously via website to have her drivers license reviewed and/or revoked. Simply list the medications she is on, her symptoms and conditions that make it dangerous for her to drive, and let the professionals decide if she should be on the road or not. In the meanwhile, make sure her auto insurance is paid up and perhaps start a conversation with them… It is difficult for children to upset their parents' independence, but on the other hand, if it is coming from someone else, the doctor, the state, the insurance agency, etc. It has better results… and it's more objective too. We had about 4 neighbors and 14 relatives anonymously petition our state BMV with driving concerns of our mother and grandmother, and after a 2 month review… she now has a hired driver for errands 4 hours per week. She kept the car, but she herself has not driven it in over 6 years. A good all around compromise. She has her independence and her car, but SHE"S not the one driving it! It protects her, and her neighbors driving around here, and the neighborhood children on bikes, etc.
July 11th, 2009 at 11:13 am
On June 30, 2009 my 89 yer old father was admitted into hospital for knee surgery. The surgery went well and he was released to rehab facility 5 days later. At first he was a little disoriented with all the changes in rooms and towns (surgery was in Omaha, rebah in Manning Iowa). But could grasp situation if reminded.
2 days later my dad is unable to keep a grasp of reality – he is halucinating and seems to recognize immediate family but talks about thinks that are not happening and just can not stay in “same” time as visitors, etc. The doctor has labeled it as Sundowners – he seem less confused in morning and as day continues he starts these stories or conversations that are not real.
We are told he may get better or he may not. My biggest concern is – in all the pre-surgery conversations with the surgeon, his primary care doctor and his heart doctors, etc – why did anyone tell us that though he was approved for surgery – we may be replacing a knee with his brain, which seemed normal prior to surgery.
I am totally shocked and upset by all this. Has anyone else experienced this? And what was their outcome?
July 11th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I experienced all of these symptoms with my mother (83) some months before she died. Unfortunately none of the nursing staff gave me any explanation even though I suggested dementia. If they had it would have been much easier to cope with and I would have visited and stayed longer (with a book or crossword) knowing that it was part of an illness and not just her being nasty. Thank you for the insight. We are just at the beginning of the anxiety in afternoon with my husband’s mother (92) and now I understand I can be more patient with her.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Mydad is 81 yearsold and had operation april 21 came home for 2weeks and then back in, he had another operation may 9th and the 12 cuz he had no circulation going to his leg he had almost lost his leg. as time went on he had been very confuse talking about things also that are not true. or seeing things and no one there. this has got me also worried and stress outt l have ask the nurse if it was the medacation age she said it was sundown too so l know what u are feeling . l pray for my dad to heal but it only getting worst. he hasent walk for 2months to skinny and week so now he has to go to a nursing home also he has try to hit my mom to. it very scary this sun down my prayers are with you people
August 19th, 2009 at 9:52 am
We just are experiencing what the staff told us is “sundowning” My mom is 95 and two weeks ago she was going out to lunch, once a week and living alone and doing all her own cooking, etc. Her delight was trips to shop or just “poke” as she said. With the hot weather, she was not feeling like eating and was not drinking water either. Her sodium level fell dangerously low and she had to be hospitalized and given an IV. Three days later her levels were all normal and she went to rehab because she was so phyically weak. She is fine during the day, but by 5PM at night she is violence and screaming and does not want anyone near her. It is so unlike her as she has always been gentle and sweet. We are getting called back to the rehab center every night because the staff can’t get her medications into her. We authorized Activan, the lowest does,(anti-anxiety drug) but she won’t take it and they can’t give it to her unless she is agitated, we’d like her to have it when she’s on the edge, before she is out of control, but they tell us they can’t give it to her then. We are very frustrated with our first experience of any kind of illness with my mom. Anyone have any suggestions for us?
September 21st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I have been caring for my mother-inlaw, she is 86yrs old, with Hypertension, and now was told that she has been experiencing of systoms of Sundowners, have never heard of this before. If someone has been dealing with disease, I have only seen some of the systoms,She has been hospitalized many times for hypertension. I don;t see much of the confusion, yet, but other systoms. Does the confusion come at a different time?Most of our systoms are interupting when you are talking with someone, maybe this is just the beginning.Let me know if anyone is dealing with this,
October 8th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
My Grandmother has recently been hospitalized with UI and suddenly today she has been diagnosed with Sundowners. After reading all of these comments, I’m wondering what is similar about all of these cases, seems most everyone was in the hospital when diagnosed. Could medication or a combination of meds be the cause of this ’sudden’ reaction?
October 13th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
My father had a similar experience when he was in his late 80’s and hospitalized. He still is confused about that time period, but we did realize that medication was the triggering factor for him. He was on morphine for pain and, when the dose was reduced, the symptoms moderated. He is now 91 and no more issues with those symptoms.
Today I heard from a dear friend in her early 60’s who was hospitalized for an intestinal blockage and had surgery last week. Now she is experiencing evening depression and hallucinations, and she says someone told her it was “sunset syndrome”. I am very concerned!
October 14th, 2009 at 6:15 am
My father who is 73 years old has been suffering from parkinsons for 7 years now and sunset syndrome for a few months. His sundown syndrome kicked in full force with no warnings. No sleep for anyone at night, My sister , Wife and I have been taking turns watching him at night so my mother who cares for him during the day can sleep. He wanders, forgets to use his walker or forgets how to use it. Tells me to take him home,even though he is home. Calls me his brother John who has been dead since 1972. Apparently there is nothing out there to treat this problem or so I have been told. Sleeping medicine works against him and causes him to become more confused. Any tips? wearing thin on all front’s and it appears that the final option is a nursing home or paying for private care.However I Know Both options will break the bank.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:01 pm
My mother had that in her last couple of years. I only recently found out this is what she had.
More than once, she would say there were children in the room, and say she heard birds chirp all night. She was invalid her last couple of years. I slept in the room with her at night. One night she thought there were other people in the house and was determined to get out of bed to see who it was. I kept telling her it was just us, but she wouldn’t believe me, kept trying to get out of bed and I had to keep restraining her. After what seemed like forever, she finally settled down and went to sleep. I was so keyed up it was a couple of hours before I could sleep. Only the grace of God kept her from trying to get up while I was sleeping and falling on the floor. I still had to get up and go to work the next morning.
Twice after I put her to bed, she woke up after a couple of hours and wanted her supper. I told her she’d already eaten, but she didn’t believe me. So I got her up, put her in her wheelchair, took her in the kitchen and fixed her something to eat. She ate, brushed her teeth, I put her back to bed and she went to sleep. The next morning she didn’t remember anything about it, and thought I was making it up when I told her about it. After that, I quit telling her things like this, because she thought she was losing her mind.
One Christmas my sister and her husband stopped by with Mama’s present. Mama was okay, but after they left, she had it in her mind that my sister was supposed to be living with us, was missing, and wanted me to go find her and call the sheriff. I kept telling her that my sister was at her house with her husband, to no avail. After she finally accepted it, or maybe just forgot all about it, she decided I was missing. I said “Mama, do you know who I am?” She said “yes, you’re Judy.” She knew I was her daughter Judy, but had it in her mind that her daughter Judy (me) was missing.
We did have a nice lady to stay with her. Mama liked her, which was rare, as Mama usually didn’t like any of the sitters we had.
My brother and sister don’t know all about this, I never told them.
November 1st, 2009 at 1:10 pm
I have a similar situation to Dottie’s and some of the other posts. My mother was diagnosed with colon cancer which had not spread (thank God). She survived the operation (86 years old and excellent mental and physical health). However, after the 3rd post-op day she became disoriented and started seeing people in white and bugs, etc. She knows who we are but is getting more agitated at i write this. The doctor said this condition was common in elderly patients and he was confident that she would be back as she was before the surgery (I hope that he is not lying to us). Activan (?) has been prescribed in low dosage due to her violent behavior (swinging at medical staff and me and my sisters – doesn’t do so with men though). Like Dottie said, there should have been some type of disclosure about this happening prior to surgery because we never imagined this type of complication. May God provide us with endurance to preserve during this difficult time.
November 13th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
My husband was very ill last year and had serious reactions to Morphine while in the hospital. One night about 1 a.m. he called me on the phone and told me to come to the hospital and bring the police. I went there and his eyes were all glassy looking and he asked where the police were? When I told him I didn’t bring them he became very agitated and said that they (someone) was removing the patients from their rooms one by one and he was next. It was a reaction to Morphine and as soon as it was daylight he was fine. Also, after being moved to a rehab center the evening nurses had a habit of asking the patients if they were ‘anxious’ and my husband said yes so he was given Ativan. He then would see bugs on the ceiling and would think he was home but couldn’t understand why I changed the cabinet to white in the kitchen when they were really the medicine cabinets in his room. His eyes would get a fixed look and it would take 24 hours for him to return to normal. This happened twice before it was determined it was the Ativan that he was having a reaction to. The head nurse told me he had sundowners but oddly once the Ativan was discontinued he was fine.
November 24th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
The hospital tht my dad is recently been in says he has this condition what is a for sure way to tell tht he has this condition. what should i be lookin 4 and how can help him
December 12th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Oh gosh, I had never heard of this until my mother developed this when she was admitted to the hospital with a broken ankle. I talked to her on the phone 2 hours before she fell and we had a very lucid conversation. Three days in the hospital and her mental condition was horrible. They sent her to skilled nursing and she is still raising heck every night. Yells that she is in pain, but can’t tell anyone where it hurts. The nursing home staff is getting impatient, and no one knows what to do. Her previous doctor had moved away and she has a new doctor. They changed all her medications and I don’t know if this is a medication problem or really the sundowners they talk about. Everyone writes about the symptoms–has anyone had any luck with any treatment–light therapy or anything??
January 10th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
my grandmother is having sundown symptoms it is very difficult she lives with me and towards evening she wont let us leave her side at night she yells out to us the ativan they prescribed to her helps but it makes her sleep. she is either sleeping at 5 in a drug induced sleep or she is yelling and trying to get out of bed she is 96 and cant stand without help, iam wondering is she more content to sleep all drugged up or is she more comfortable yelling and confused, either way its heart breaking. the only thing we can do is give her ativan and hold her hand.
January 11th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Since my December post, they put my mother on Xanax and Lexapro. She sleeps a lot and the yelling and sundowners symptoms seem to be under control The downside is the excessive sleeping and more dementia. There are six kids in our family and we have all decided that we prefer mother in this state. She seems quite happy and has stopped assaulting the CNAs. Before she would get almost a wild look in her eyes. Her old sparkle is back, but she mostly doesn’t know what planet she’s on. This may be as close to happy as she can get. It’s not a pleasant way to spend her last years, but if she seems happy, we can be happy too.
March 1st, 2010 at 12:47 am
My mother in law has just been diagnosed with sundowner syndrome. She has pneumonia as well as recently being diagnosed with lung cancer. She is experiencing all of the things that have been mentioned. She is pretty good in the morning, but around 3 p.m. or so she starts seeing things. She hears and sees birds, people in white, thinks she is in jail and the nurses are her jailers, she most recently has had the nurses call us in the middle of the night because she doesn’t remember where she is, doesn’t know who the nurses are. She doesn’t want to be left alone. She wants us there at all hours of the day and night (mostly night). Today they have assigned a cna to stay with her twenty four – seven. She trys to get out of bed and has succeeded in doing so a couple of times (thank god she didn’t fall). It is so heart breaking to see her in this condition as she too is a wonderful loving kind and caring person that has lived by herself until recently. My husband and I want her to come and live with us when she gets out of the hospital, but we both work and we know that it is going to be a hard road to hoe with watching her and trying to get our rest so we can do our jobs as well. The doctor today put on haladon, we are just hoping and praying this will help. We may have to do as Gloria (above) has done and put her on Xanax and Lexapro at least then we would know that she would be safe and not get up and end up wandering and leave the house. It just kills us to see her in this condition. We would appreciate any knowledge that anyone might have on this condition.
March 9th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
It is pretty obvious that this syndrome is exacerbated by hospitalization, surgery and all the drugs that go along with it, probably the general anesthetics, too. Don’t forget that at the hospital they wake the patient all the time to check vital signs, take blood and even to empty the trash~it is quite barbaric to me.
The way I solved this was to refuse any surgery for my mother, who is 85, and will not let her go to the hospital ever again. She is old enough and not afraid to die a natural death without all these “enhancements” the medical system throws at us all. BEWARE!
Your elderly loved one does not have to suffer like this. Who says they need surgery? We are only on this Planet Earth for a very short time, actually. We all leave it. Why not let it happen naturally is my thought. Thank you for reading this.