Aged and Community Services Australia Inc

Consult A Doctor

As people get older, it is common to sleep less during the night. However, this should not be taken as a normal situation. If you have a responsibility of taking care of an older person, ask for advice from a doctor.

Enquire if certain medication could be having pain as side effects and if that’s the case, find out whether reducing, increasing or changing the medication and its timing will help to calm the situation.

Consult if taking painkillers before going to bed helps one get better sleep. Because according to research drugs like antihistamines help. You should also take them to be tested for any ailments which affect older people like arthritis.

Change Their Beverage Intake

It is good to reduce their caffeine intake. If they addicted to coffee or tea, switch it with decaf without their knowledge because caffeine is known to make someone lose sleep at night. Their liquids intake before going to bed should be regulated and you should make sure they pee just before retiring to bed. You should also encourage them to take more water during the day and less at night.

Read more: Ideal Room Temperature For Elderly

Check On Their Routine

If you make an elderly person stick to a regular daily routine, their body will get used to it. Therefore, establish a specific duration in which they go to bed. For example, if you decide they should sleep from 10pm to 7am, make sure they achieve that everyday and with time, they will adapt to the schedule.

Also ensure that they sleep less during the day especially in the afternoon so that they can get enough sleep at night. In order to calm them down and ensure that they get enough sleep at night, play some soothing music an hour before bed or do some light massage on their bodies as this loosens up their muscles and helps them sleep quickly.

Focus On Their Comfort

To ensure that they sleep comfortably, ensure that the room temperature where they sleep is moderate and not too cold or too hot. Keep their rooms clean and ventilated to prevent discomfort when they are sleeping. Also check their mattresses and ensure that they are comfortable enough and supportive as well. It is also good to ensure that they sleep with a pillow or a stuffed animal as cuddling the animal when sleeping makes them feel warm and safe.

Minimize Distractions During The Night

When older people get to sleep, it is advisable to ensure that the environment is peaceful and silent enough. Get rid of loud music and any form of noise that will affect them. Holding a party in a house with an elderly person and especially during their sleep time is totally uncouth as it gives them discomfort making them lack sleep.

Take Care Of Their Bodies

Everyone feels comfortable when they are clean and warm. Make sure that the aged person you are taking care of takes regular baths. When going to sleep, encourage them to take a warm bath because after taking a warm bath, the body temperature drops and makes one feel tired. On the brighter side it also helps one feel relaxed and more ready to go to bed. In a cold season, ensure that they a warm enough. You can help them warm up their bodies when it’s too cold by having them sit next to a fire or installing a heating system in the house to regulate the temperatures and ensure that they are comfortable with the current room temperature.

Keep Them Away From Allergies

Establish the allergies which affect the elderly person and keep them away from them. If it is dust, keep their environment free from dust. If they like pets and have a habit of sleeping with them in the same room, make another room for the pets to sleep in.

Check Their Sleeping Positions

Different people have different ways of sleeping. However, the elderly normally suffer from various body pains. Therefore, their sleeping positions should be dictated by whether they suffer from any pain in their body. As indicated in this video, different sleeping positions have different ways of being handled to prevent spinal injury.

There are three different sleeping positions: there are those who sleep on their sideways, those who sleep on the back and those who sleep on their stomach. For the side sleepers, ensure that they have a pillow under their neck and on their shoulders to align their spinal cord well. For the back sleepers, a pillow shouldn’t be added under the neck to prevent their neck from bending forward. For the stomach sleepers, care should be taken to ensure that the spine is well aligned.

In as much as the older person may be used to a certain sleeping position, if they are undergoing any type of pain, it should be the one to dictate their sleeping position in order to prevent more injuries. For someone with back pain, it is advisable to sleep on their side or on their backs.

For those suffering from isthmic spondylolisthesis, they are advised to use a reclined bed or an adjustable bed. If an adjustable bed is more expensive, there is a mimic which works the same way known as a bed wedge for those suffering from neck pain and knee pain, they are advised to sleep on their backside or sideways. For general hip pain, they should sleep on their side with their knees bent and for those with a heartburn, it is good to sleep on the sideways in an inclined position.

Observe The Time They Spent In Bed

This can be done by ensuring that they are only in bed when they are sleeping. Once they wake up, they should leave the bed and sit somewhere else. Therefore, they can’t be tempted to go back to sleep again and use the sleep meant for the night.

Improve On Their Diet

Health is a major factor in anyone’s life. Considering old age, poor diet is a major drawback and can make them uncomfortable, sick and weak. It is good to feed old people with plenty of fruits and vegetables as this boosts their metabolism and helps them acquire good sleep and gets rid of any prospective infections.

Finally, it is good to take care of the elderly in all manner of ways and make sure they are comfortable, warm and cosy. It is disturbing to wake up every night and cut off your sleep to take care of them whenever they wake up because of a discomfort or pain. Because this is inevitable among old people, we should focus on improving their sleep and cut down on their discomfort and pain by using the tips I highlighted above. If you have a friend who needs assistance in helping their elderly ones, share this article with them. If it benefited you, please give your feedback in the comments section given below.

The Ideal Room Temperature For The Elderly

The average room temperature for a normal human being is 370C. However, the room temperature specifications vary with age, gender and health status of an individual. According to research, the ideal room temperature for the elderly people is estimated to be 36.10C. Any temperature much warmer or colder than the given value may affect them negatively. Therefore, I will herein discuss different ways on how to maintain the ideal room temperature in elderly people’s bedrooms.

Dressing Warmly

The clothes we put on determine how warm we are. Have you ever tried to put on two thin cardigans and compare the warmth you feel with when you put on a single thick cardigan? According to science, it is advisable to dress elderly people with many thin layered clothes as opposed to one thick clothing. This is because many thin layered clothes trap more warm air close to the body. Woolly clothes and thermal clothing also serve the same purpose to keep the elderly warm.

Bedrooms are known to be the coldest rooms in a house and the floor may be way too cold for elderly people. It is advisable that they put on a pair of socks on their feet to keep their toes warm when walking around. It is said that most heat is lost through the head and the neck and in order to get rid of that, elderly people should put on a scarf and a hat when indoors in a chilly weather.

Design Of The House

In order to keep warm, an elderly person’s house ought to be well insulated. The walls should be resistant to heat loss so as to maintain enough heat in the rooms. Curtains should be drawn the moment it gets dark to prevent heat from escaping and cold air flowing in. It is recommended that the minimum room temperature for a bedroom should be 180C. Therefore, heating systems should be installed in a house and turned on to ensure there is enough warmth as required. However, they should be checked regularly and turned off when necessary to avoid extreme temperatures in the house.

Keeping The Bed Warm

The bed is well known as the main asset in a bedroom. In a chilly weather especially during winter, beds tend to be too cold hence mechanisms to warm them have to be applied in order to make them comfortable for elderly people to sleep in.

Electric blankets can be used and they should be checked regularly to see if they are worn out. There are water bottles specially designed to provide warmth in the bed and they should be put into use. However, great care should be taken when using electric devices to provide warmth for the elderly because they might not be conversant with the operation of the devices and in case of a fault, their safety may be at a risk.

To ensure safe operation of these devices, proper maintenance should be done twice a year to ensure that they are in a good working condition.

When going to bed, it is advisable that we ensure they put on warm clothes like a thermal underwear, a hat and bed socks. The beddings they use should be warm enough and able to retain heat throughout the night.

Moving Around

Walking generates heat. Since during cold seasons elderly people can hardly step out of the house for a walk, we should give them small duties which will make them move around the house. We can give them house chores to do and send them to get snacks from the kitchen.

Eating Healthy

There are plenty of healthy foods and drinks recommended by experts which are able to keep the body warm for a long time. To keep the elderly people’s energy levels up, we should give them plenty of fruits and vegetables during the day. Similarly, giving them one hot meal in a day and plenty of drinks serves the same purpose.

We should always ensure there is a flask with hot water or hot ginger tea throughout the day which is accessible to them whenever they need to warm up their bodies with a drink. Generally, proper diet should be the first priority when feeding an elderly person because it majorly aids in maintaining their ideal room temperature

Read more: Tips To Improve Senior Sleep By Reducing Pain And Discomfort

Keeping Their Minds Active

During winter seasons, it is hard for elderly people to go out and interact socially with people. In order to maintain an ideal room temperature for them, engaging them in social activities within the house like playing mind games and telling stories keeps their minds active and they shun away boredom. This way, they can’t concentrate on the cold weather.

Finally

Ensuring there is ideal room temperature for elderly people is a responsibility we should all take up because these are special people in our lives who need special care. Exposing them to very cold temperatures makes them susceptible to infections and makes them uncomfortable. We should always strive to keep them warm in all situations and ensure their bedrooms are warm enough because that is where they spend most of their time.

I hope you enjoyed reading my article. Did you find the article useful? Please share your views in the comments section below and share the article with a friend and let us spread awareness on how to keep our elderly relatives and friends warm.