Sleep issues have big ramifications for your elderly family member from mood problems to health issues flaring out of control. Your elderly family member needs to sleep, so if she’s having trouble, she needs to figure out what is happening. This is often easier with your help and the help of home care professionals, especially once your elderly family member is ready to try to put some solutions to work for her sleep problems.
Explore Stressors
You might not think that your senior has anything to worry about, but you’d be surprised. There are a lot of different stressors that can interfere with your senior’s ability to get the sleep that she needs. She might worry that she’s unable to keep up with everything that needs to be done, for instance, which causes her to be unable to relax. Bringing home care providers in to help your senior with hands-on tasks can work really well.
Look at Daily Routines
Another possibility is that your aging family member’s daily routine is off way more than she realizes. This could mean that she’s eating at odd times or she’s not sticking with a set bedtime, causing her to wake up late. Add in haphazard exercise routines and long afternoon naps, and your elderly family member may be lucky to get any sleep at all. Senior care providers can help her to get her routines back on track.
Examine Choices
Are there other choices your senior is making that maybe are affecting sleep? Things like drinking a lot of water late in the day can cause her to have trouble getting to sleep. Likewise, eating stimulating foods and drinks later than she should can also be a problem. Your elderly family member has lots of choices available to her but making the wrong ones at times could be costing her in terms of sleep.
Try Mindfulness
Sometimes a bit of mindfulness, or alert awareness, is what your senior needs. This is a helpful tool for people who find mediation overwhelming. All your aging family member has to do is stay in the moment with everything she’s doing throughout her day. If she’s cooking, really experience the activity, including all of the sights and smells. Tuning out or going through her day on autopilot can leave her feeling unable to sleep when it’s time.
Talk with Her Doctor
Don’t overlook how important it is for your senior to talk about this problem with her doctor, too. Your senior’s doctor can rule out medical causes for insomnia, including addressing whether there are any medication side effects at play. If there’s no medical cause for her sleep trouble, there may be other solutions that her doctor recommends. But it’s crucial to at least rule out that possibility.
Nobody enjoys sleep trouble, especially your elderly family member. Helping her to find the right answers for her situation can help her to enjoy her daily life again. She may also find that other problems, like health troubles that were getting worse, are a lot easier to manage.
If you or an aging loved one is considering home care in Englewood, CO, call the caring staff at SYNERGY Home Care of Denver today. 303-756-9322
