The human brain can perceive time through two methods — the capability of telling what time it is, both inherent and learned, and the internal body clock that every human has. However, the brain gets damaged by dementia, resulting in the person losing the analytical and reasoning abilities required to tell time.

How Can Dementia Affect The Perception Of Time?

One of the reasons why dementia affects the perception of time is because of the progressive loss of memory. Most dementia patients cannot recall events or situations that happened a few minutes ago. Due to this, they lose their perspective of when other gatherings or events will occur.

They May Not Know What Day, Month, Or Year It Is

For people without dementia, recalling the date or month may only take a few minutes using our reasoning and memory. Memory is notoriously often the first thing that people associate with Alzheimer’s and dementia — and this extends to timekeeping as well.

Losing Track Of Time & Weakened Time Management

Individuals with dementia can gradually lose their ability to grasp the amount of time that has passed. They may even think that you haven’t contacted them in weeks when in reality, you speak to them every day.

A person with dementia gradually loses their problem-solving skills and can subsequently find it incredibly difficult to manage their time. For example, they may not understand how long a particular task will take them to complete, or they may want to leave to a scheduled event well before it begins.

Inability To Tell Time

Telling time is a skill we all learn while growing up. However, the latent analytical abilities we use to do that may be lost with the disease, and an individual may eventually be unable to understand the sequence of numbers or what the hands on the clock face mean.

This is one of the many reasons why it is so important for caregivers to establish routines for their dementia patients. Even if they have lost the ability to keep track of time, maintaining a sense of normalcy through routine can be a great boon for both the caregiver and patient’s health.

Sundowning

Researchers still aren’t exactly sure what the cause of sundowning is, but many reason that it may have something to do with dementia affecting a person’s internal body clock. Sundowning — sudden irritable or moody behavior that occurs in the evening hours — can be managed through communication and ensuring their needs are met. Maybe it’s been too long since their last meal, they feel tired, or they’re bored. Try remediating things through trial and error and figure out what the issue may be through process of elimination. For instance, an evening walk in the park may be in order for someone who is bored or irritable — but for another patient who is excessively tired, this obviously isn’t going to be the solution. Work with them and take another look at their routine to figure out what the issue may be.

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