Sundowning: disruptive behavior with many causes.
Most long-term care clinicians are familiar with sundowning syndrome, a period at the end of the day when residents with dementia may exhibit more agitation or behavioral disturbances. Little research has been done in this area, but that which has been completed implicates frustrated communication, sleep disturbances related to dementia, and poor light exposure as possible causes. Sundowning may be the manifestation of residents' distant memories of heightened activity in the evening and the inability to adapt to a different and less active long-term care environment.
National Cancer Insitute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Jeannette Y
JY
Wick
Guido R
GR
Zanni