Early darkness makes late afternoons harder for a lot of older adults. Four changes worth making before November 1, starting with the lamps.
On November 1 it starts getting dark at half past four, and for a lot of older adults that changes the whole shape of the day.
Families notice it every year without connecting it to the calendar. She gets more anxious in the late afternoon. More confused. Wants to go home when she is already home. Calls you three times between four and six. If there’s any dementia in the picture, this is the stretch where it shows up worst, and the early dark makes it start earlier.
Some of it is light and some of it is the day being long and empty by then. Either way, ten days out, you can get ahead of it.
Turn lamps on before it gets dark, not after. That sounds too simple to matter and it matters more than almost anything else on this list. A house that goes gradually dim while somebody sits in it is a house that gets unsettling by five o’clock.
Get light into her in the morning. Curtains open, breakfast near a window, out on the porch if it’s decent.
Move the demanding parts of the day earlier. Appointments, showers, anything that takes cooperation, aim for before noon while she’s got the most in the tank.
And put something in the four o’clock hour. That’s the one that does the most good. A phone call she can count on. A show. Folding towels. Company. The empty hour is the hard hour.
This is the most common reason we get calls in November. Not a crisis. A daughter saying the afternoons have gotten bad. An afternoon caregiver two or three days a week fixes more of this than people expect.
Ten days. Start turning the lamps on now.
Seniors Helping Seniors® Jersey Shore North Home care, respite, personal care, and transportation in Monmouth, Middlesex, and Ocean Counties, NJ. www.JSNorthSHS.com | info@JSNorthSHS.com | 732-385-8805