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Understanding Sundowning: A Brief Guide for Families and Caregivers
How disrupted brain clocks create twilight confusion
The term “sundowning syndrome” describes a cluster of symptoms and behavioral abnormalities that manifest in a person’s altered state of mind, conduct, and mood when the sun sets later in the day. It has been estimated that twenty percent or more of Alzheimer’s patients experience sundowning at some point. To keep their care recipient comfortable and peaceful, caregivers must be aware of sundowning and have the necessary tools to manage it.
It’s more of a symptom that people with dementia often experience than a disease itself. Estimates are that sundowning affects more than 60% of dementia patients, according to some research, while the actual prevalence varies greatly, ranging from 1.6% to 66% of dementia patients.
We may also be surprised by the current and future prevalence of the disorder. Someone develops dementia every three seconds, as noted by statistical tables related to the astonishing rate of population ageing, and by 2050, there will be 152 million individuals living with the disorder.
Sundowning is a significant worry for families coping with dementia, and the wide variety of results illustrates that researchers have different ways of defining it. In other words, we have no accurate…
