What Keeps Senior from NOT Sleeping Well?

Sleeping difficulty can be a great challenge in the aging season. Regardless of a senior person’s reason in facing this sleep difficulty, they still need to receive intervention so they can get sufficient amount of sleep. As providers of healthcare services in Virginia, here’s a quick set of recommendations from us:

• Ensure that their bed linens are replaced, cleansed, and fresh to help relax their body.
• Dim the room’s lighting so their eyes can adjust to the darkness.
• Facilitate relaxing activities such as meditation or playing some calming music.
• Create a sleeping routine that is fit to your loved one’s care plan.
• Let them take relaxing medications as their doctor advises

However, another important way for us to address their sleeping problem is to know what causes it. After all, when we know what causes the situation, we can finally be able to provide the appropriate intervention. Here are the common reasons why seniors don’t sleep better:

• SLEEP APNEA

  This sleeping difficulty is one of the common sleeping disorders that affect seniors. To identify if the patient has the condition, they will undergo a test with the sleep specialist to verify if the patient has sleep apnea. When diagnosed, they will be undergoing other tests to ensure it’s truly sleep apnea, and treatments will be prescribed once diagnosed.

• CHRONIC AILMENTS

  Heart problems can also lead to sleeping difficulties in our elderly loved ones. They may experience irregular heartbeats that can keep them awake at night. In these types of conditions, they might be given prescriptions that they need to adhere to. You can request for a nursing assistant to ensure their proper medication management at home so they can also sleep well.

• DEPRESSION

  The elderly group can also acquire depression that is also caused by other events in life such as loss of a loved one, terminal illness, or other triggers. When you observe that your loved one’s sadness has lingered too long, such as about six months, without displaying instances of enjoyment, they may have depression. It’s best to take them to a doctor for proper diagnosis and possible intervention.

• ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

  As one of the common ailments in the aging season, Alzheimer’s can affect many aspects of a person’s well-being. Sleep is one of the behaviors that can be disrupted once they have Alzheimer’s. It can help when we know our loved one’s actual status so we will be aware of the extent of the assistance we can provide.

Sleeping difficulty can be a real trouble to seniors and the above-mentioned causes are just a few of them. As a home care service provider in Fairfax, Virginia, we recommend that any sign of sleeping disturbance has to be referred to their physician for correct diagnosis so you will know the exact level of care that your loved one needs.

At Gateway Healthcare Services LLC, we’ll be right here to help you out in caring for your loved one.