1. Trouble Sleeping
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This symptom isn’t well understood, but people with dementia often experience difficulty sleeping at night and changes in their sleep patterns. Some think that increased anxiety may be the cause.
Typically, people with dementia will struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep. Some studies have shown disruption to how often they dream too. Dementia suffers struggle to stay in bed once they’re awake and may toss and turn or wander the house.
Often as a result of sleeping, people with dementia will nap during the day and become irritable in the afternoon if they don’t. In extreme cases, dementia sufferers can experience complete reversal of the day and night cycle, but this usually occurs at a later stage.
If you or a loved one are worried about your health, or are displaying two or more of these symptoms, it is time to see your doctor. Many of these symptoms individually can just be signs of getting older, but the earlier dementia is detected, the more treatment options are available to slow the progression of symptoms.