Denise said:Hi.  My mom is getting pretty testy in the evenings.  Can anyone tell me about their experience with Sundowners Syndrome?  I think it goes with Alzheimer's Disease.  My mom was recently diagnosed and she seems a lot worse lately.  She thinks she can take her medicine herself, but she does not. 

Hi, Denise.  I had that problem, too. (My mother just refused to take her medicine.)  I found that getting a home health care aide made a big difference.  For some reason she is more willing to cooperate with someone other than her daughter.  The home health care people say that is a common thing.  If you can, get some help, because you have enough to deal with with the Sundowners.  My mother has Sundowner's too.  She gets cranky and worse toward late afternoon and into the evening.  She reverses things she said in the day and is CERTAIN she never said them.  Whne morning comes, she doesn;t remember being cranky.  I think the most helpful thing someone told me was to learn to say yes to everything no matter what, because in the end you need to protect your own mental health from unfair outbursts, it makes them happy in the interim, and they don't remember anyway when the next day the answer is really no.  It is a hard thing to do because it feels like you are being "untrue"- but it is the kind way.