As a caregiver of an older adult experiencing memory loss, you may find yourself wondering if there’s more you could be doing to improve your loved one’s comfort and well-being. You may be surprised that one relatively simple step — one you may not even realize the magnitude of — can make a big difference.
Establishing a consistent daily routine significantly enhances the quality of life for individuals in memory care. There isn’t one right or wrong way to establish a memory care routine; rather, the benefit is in the repetition and predictability it provides.
Why Routines Offer Comfort
Faced with a world that is increasingly confusing, older adults experiencing memory loss or dementia thrive in environments that feel familiar. Navigating what feels like a never-ending series of unknowns places added stress on someone whose memory is fading.
However, routines for elderly individuals with memory loss can be useful in providing a sense of stability for a loved one. Consistent routines provide structure that allows your loved one to compensate for memory loss by relying on habitual cues to move through the day. At the same time, they can create a useful framework that gives organization and purpose to your role as a caregiver.
It’s also worth noting that memory loss isn’t just about losing skills, knowledge and recollections from the past. In early stages, memory loss is typically characterized by short-term memory loss, which means it can affect an individual’s ability to learn new things. Routines allow them to follow familiar patterns that tend to be stored in long-term memory.
How Routines Benefit Seniors with Memory Loss
To better understand how memory care routines can serve your loved one’s needs, it may help to explore the importance of routine in dementia care in greater detail.
Reduced anxiety
Think back to your first day of school or the first day at a new job. Even the coolest cucumbers have some degree of anxiety in those scenarios because there are so many unknowns. For your loved one, memory loss means experiencing that kind of anxiety day in and day out.
Depending on where they are in their memory loss journey, those moments of confusion may come and go unexpectedly, or they may reflect a continual state. The resulting confusion and discomfort can cause significant distress.
That’s why, to some degree, all humans thrive on routines. For those with memory loss, the continuity and predictability of even the most basic routines offer comfort and minimize the risk of anxiety-laden aggression.
Cognitive function
It may seem counterintuitive that doing the same thing over and over actually stimulates the brain, but it’s true. What you may think of as monotonous repetition is actually helping boost your loved one’s memory recall. It’s a powerful enough process that some research suggests it may even slow your loved one’s cognitive decline.
A routine offers cognitive benefits in its own right, but as you’re planning a routine for a loved one with memory loss, remember the value of repetition and think about ways to incorporate those activities into the day to promote natural cognitive stimulation. For example, plan for routine chores like making the bed or folding laundry and regular activity time with card games or puzzles.
Independence
Knowing what to expect out of the day is empowering for someone who is navigating memory loss. Routines lead to confidence and self-esteem, which translates into self-reliance and autonomy.
As your loved one progresses through the stages of memory loss or dementia, there will come a time that their self-sufficiency is gone. But even when they aren’t safe living alone any longer, your loved one can still benefit from a personal sense of independence. Routines create a foundation for performing tasks with minimal assistance, and that’s a gift of dignity that immeasurably enhances your loved one’s well-being.
Improved sleep
The human body operates on a series of routines that is largely driven by an internal clock known as the circadian rhythm. This is the function of your body that signals awake time versus sleep time. While that signal naturally aligns with light and darkness, it’s easy to disrupt that pattern, which leads to fewer hours of sleep and lower quality of rejuvenating rest.
For someone with memory loss or dementia, the resulting fatigue and brain fog can be especially harmful, but routines can help reset your loved one’s circadian rhythm by sending clear signals to the body with consistent wakeup, meal, exercise and bedtimes.
Sense of security
For someone who operates in constant but varying degrees of confusion, predictability can be a true blessing. That’s why one of the benefits of structure in memory care is a deeper level of security as your loved one moves through the day.
Familiar patterns of activity limit anxiety and may even offer a sense of comfort and peace. Knowing what to expect and what lies ahead, even if in the short term, can reduce the disorientation that many individuals with memory loss experience.
Ideas for Incorporating More Routines in the Day
Once you understand the importance of routines for seniors with memory loss or dementia, you may be wondering how to create more patterns and routines to support your loved one.
Honor lifelong habits. If your loved one prefers to eat breakfast in their pajamas and then get dressed and groom for the day, there’s no reason to disrupt that pattern.
Be conscious of time. As memory loss or dementia progresses, your loved one’s concept of time on the clock may fade, and they may develop language barriers that make it difficult to communicate things like, “It’s time for dinner” or “Let’s call it a day.” However, cues can help signal progression of time throughout the day, such as always setting the table before dinner and closing the blinds as nighttime falls.
Engage your loved one. Allowing your loved one to take an active role in the routines you establish will make a more meaningful impression. Focusing on what they can do — like helping pick what they want to wear for the day, even if they can’t navigate the zippers and buttons — helps preserve their dignity and maintain an active role in their own life.
Remain flexible. It may seem like an oxymoron to talk about flexibility and routines all at once. However, while memory care routines are meant to offer structure, they shouldn’t be so rigid that there’s no room for evolution or change. You may find that you need to adjust routines to accommodate your loved one’s abilities or to honor that they’re simply having an off day and moving to a new activity is for the best.
When Your Loved One with Memory Loss Needs More Support
Many caregivers struggle with knowing when it’s time to ask for help caring for a loved one with memory loss or dementia. It’s an emotional decision that’s often wrapped up in layers of love, devotion, guilt, fear and more.
Canterbury Court’s monthly Caregiver Support Group is a great first step toward finding support and friendship, along with answers to your questions from others who understand. In addition, the community’s Memory Support care team can provide valuable perspective on how you can continue to manage care yourself or how your loved one may flourish with a professionally trained support team.