Ways to Keep Your Elderly Loved One Sleeping Well with COPD
If your elderly loved one has COPD, you might have noticed that sometimes her sleep can be hit or miss. There are a variety of reasons that this can be the case and it can take some digging to get to the full answer for your loved one.
Elderly Care Chester PA – Ways to Keep Your Elderly Loved One Sleeping Well with COPD
Talk to Your Loved One’s Doctor
Your first stop when dealing with sleep issues should always be your loved one’s doctor. It’s possible that other problems, such as sleep apnea, are contributing to your loved one’s problems with sleep. Finding the underlying issues can help you to get to a solution much more quickly. Your loved one’s doctor might even order a sleep study to get a full picture of what is going on.
Look at Whether Medications Are Interfering with Sleep
One such underlying issue can actually be medications that your loved one needs in order to manage her health conditions. Some might be interacting with each other or even compounding side effects. If this is the case, then adjusting those medications might provide the relief that your loved one needs in order to get some quality sleep.
Switch up Sleeping Positions
Everyone has their own preferences for sleeping positions and your loved one’s favorite sleeping position might actually make sleeping with COPD much more difficult. One of the best sleeping positions is actually on her side, because that helps to keep her airways open and able to breathe more readily.
Track Sleep Patterns to See What Works
Try keeping a notebook in which you track what time your loved one went to bed, how much sleep she got, and how she felt after sleeping. If you make any changes, make sure to notate those as well. This kind of journal allows you to look back later and see what worked to help your loved one to get better sleep and what actually made the situation worse for her.
Getting back into good sleep patterns can often mean adopting healthier sleep hygiene. Everyone involved in your loved one’s care, from elderly care providers to other family members, can help your loved one to stay on target.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Elderly Care Services in Chester PA, please contact the caring staff at True Direct Home Health Care today.
Doc, as he is called by everyone - staff, patients and clients - first experienced home health care and hospice care while as a colleg student at King's College as he cared for his mother every day while she first battled COPD and then lung cancer. It was during this time that he came to understand that caring for a patient was more than just clinical expertise.
"Admittedly, my strongest attribute is my communication skills and the simple fact that I love to help people. Even the smallest thing you can do for someone really can mean so much to them long term. In fact, it could change them forever. That's what providing quality personal home health care should be all about."
In his spare time, he cooks for homeless shelters and children's music and arts events. He also is highly involved in his local youth sports soccer academy as a coach and Board member.
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