My elderly mother has had poor sleep habits all her life, but after reading the above blogs, I am of the opinion she is definately suffering from Sleep Depriviation. Her latest symptoms include hallucinations,(visions like ghosts all around her) which lead to paranoia (someone is in my apartment), fear, and back to fear of going to bed. I have witnessed her sleep patterns of snoring and what appears to be sound sleep and her legs (restless legs) in constant motion & jerking and then a sudden lucid uttering of some type which appears to come from a dream or nightmare & she is wide awake again! The hallucinations increase as sleep deprevation grows until they are with her all the time. She can verbalize they are not real, but at times she is convinced they are....i.e., locks herself in the bathroom because there are people sitting on the couch.
I have had her to many doctors to evaluate her medications & potential harmful mixes and her own doctor has carefully prescribed & supervised any additions to her already growning list of meds. But, I don't think we have emphasized the sleep issue. Anything to make the elderly sleep adds the problem of instability and falling. The descriptions on this site of "testimonials" hit the nail on the head. I think we can now hope for some improvement by addressing sleep. Old people get a bad rap for dementia, but she has no memory loss. I remind her doctors not to dismiss her symptoms because of her age. She, at 98, still travels and is outliving her doctors. Andrea