Over the years, people change their habits. They say that as they get older, everyone gets more manic: with food, housework, sleep, but why?Today we will focus on changes in the sleep structure of older adults with or without dementia, with a focus on afternoon behavior, this is what we call afternoon, evening or sunset syndrome.
This syndrome can be defined as a state of disorientation that occurs at the end of the afternoon and lasts into the evening; it can affect anyone, especially when they reach old age, but it’s more common in people with some form of dementia.
- It is important to mention that.
- While this can happen to anyone.
- It affects only 10% to 25% of patients with this disease (Lesta and Petocz.
- 2004).
As Dewing, quoted in González y Cerdea (2015), said, it is difficult to narrow down the definition of the term, but this syndrome includes periods of extreme agitation and confusion at the end of the afternoon or early at night, leading to irritability.
The patient experiences changes in motor behavior and the ability to express themselves.
According to Ech-verri and Erri (2007), this is one of the most common phenomena occurring in geriatric medicine.
Although, as we have said above, there is no consensual definition of sunset syndrome in medical literature, we can call it an undesirable psychobehavioral episode.
It affects some alzheimer’s dementia patients so they become particularly agitated, aggressive and restless in the late hours of the day.
This syndrome makes the confusional episodes experienced by people with Alzheimer’s disease more visible, so it manifests itself and shows behavioral, emotional and cognitive problems associated with dementia.
“Insomnia is a dizzying lucidity that can make paradise a place of torture. “Emil Cioran?
As Giménez and Macías say, the origin or cause of this syndrome may be a degradation of circadian sleep rhythms caused by Alzheimer’s disease or a change in the perception of light associated with old age.
Some of the causes that can lead to this syndrome are social isolation and the darkness of sunset; In addition, polypharmacy, defined by WHO as the concomitant use of three or more medicines, can also be cited, which can trigger behavioral changes.
Although there is no clear clinical picture, here are some of the symptoms of this syndrome, according to Gomenez and Macias (2015):
Other symptoms that also appear, according to Ech-verri and Erri (2007):
Some recommendations, in addition to pharmacology, may include
In addition, it should be noted that the use of multisensory therapy or snoezelen can have positive benefits and effects when relieving the signs and symptoms of older adults.
In short, there is not much literature that speaks of sunset syndrome, which hinders treatment and knowledge, it is necessary to understand the factors that lead to the different changes to act accordingly and thus improve the quality of life of patients.