What is sundown dementia?
A fellow caregiver asked...
What is sundown dementia?
Expert Answer
Paula Spencer Scott is the author of Surviving Alzheimer's. A Met Life Foundation Journalists in Aging fellow, she writes extensively about health and caregiving; four of her family members have had dementia.
Sundown syndrome isn't a kind of dementia. It's an effect of it. "Sundowning" is a term that describes the onset of confusion and agitation that generally affects people with dementia or cognitive impairment and strikes in the late afternoon or early evening (when the sun goes down, hence the name). Learn more about it here.