Getting lousy sleep adds up, especially for your senior. It doesn’t take long for aging adults to feel the effects of poor sleep. Finding the right solutions, including dietary changes and adding home care, can take some trial and error. Here are some places to start looking.
Pay Attention to Food, Drink, and Timing
It’s easy to forget how important the right foods and drinks are to helping your senior sleep well. Equally important is the timing of when your senior is eating and drinking. If your elderly family member has sleep issues, keeping a food and drink log can help narrow down contributing factors. What you’re looking for are things like high sugar content or high caffeine content. Because these could interfere with sleep. Heavy meals later in the day are likely to interfere.
Check Out Her Sleep Environment
Your elderly family member’s sleeping situation matters a lot when it comes to helping her get quality sleep. If your senior’s room is too bright or the temperature gets too warm overnight, that’s going to pose a problem. Finding ways to address whatever is causing your senior’s sleep environment to be less than ideal is crucial to help her get back to sleeping well.
Set a Sleep Schedule
It might seem restrictive at first to suggest a sleep schedule for your elderly family member. But the reality is that having a solid sleep schedule helps your senior’s body know what to expect in terms of sleep and wakefulness. Working with her circadian rhythm helps her body do what it needs to do to ensure she’s doing what she wants to do at all times of the day and night.
Find Routines that Help
Much of this also involves finding routines that support your elderly family member in her goals. Daily routines ensure that she’s hydrating properly, getting enough movement, and nourishing her body. As the day winds down, afternoon and evening routines help prepare her body for sleep. Home care assistance can offer gentle structure to your senior’s days, which makes formulating and sticking to routines so much easier.
Talk to Her Doctor
Small changes should help your senior get better sleep fairly quickly. If those changes aren’t working, there might be more going on. Talking to your senior’s doctor can help determine if there might be health issues that contribute to her sleep problems. Getting those under better control can be exactly what your elderly family member needs most.
If your senior’s sleep issues are really interfering with her daily life, she might feel as if she’s experiencing cognitive changes. She could also be having more trouble with mood regulation and daily tasks. Having help from home care providers can make all of that a lot easier while she’s sorting out her sleep issues.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Home Care in La Jolla, CA, please contact the caring staff at Aaron Home Care. (619) 880-5522
A Trusted Home Care Agency Serving La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Point Loma, San Diego, UTC, La Mesa, Chula Vista, Coronado, Bonita, Eastlake and the surrounding areas.
In 1999, Aaron was named Residential Program Manager of a group home for disabled adults in Arlington, Virgina. Here, he built a reputation for being compassionate with his clients and efficient in company operations. In the years that followed, Washington DC’s human services field went through unprecedented reform when the city was fined $11 million for the previously unchecked abuse, neglect, and exploitation of the very population it was supposed to protect. In 2005, Aaron was selected by a watchdog company to co-create and implement a monitoring system to safeguard and advocate for the system’s most vulnerable residents. This system is still in use today.
Aaron is now using his unique gifts and profound experience in the human service field to provide San Diego County Seniors with dependable, compassionate caregivers through Aaron Home Care.
He currently serves on the board of the San Diego Regional Home Care Council and is an active member of the Senior Advocate Network of San Diego.
Aaron Home Care is a member of the American Board of Home Care and is accredited by the Better Business Bureau.
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