I put Mom in bed the correct way, it doesn't take long before she is sideways (up against the headboard) in the bed with her feet, sometimes her knees dangling off the side. She almost always sleeps on her stomach so her dangling her knees off the side has to be painful. I am constantly adjusting her, she seems not to understand how to sleep in a bed. Has any one else experienced this? I am thinking she is afraid of falling off but she really doesn't move much, to my knowledge she has only fallen off once and that was a long time ago. I am wondering if I should shove the bed up against the wall, she is sleeping in a double bed. Thanks for your input. She has Alzheimer's/Dementia.
As for cause of this happening I wonder if she is incontinent and/or weak?
With my mom she will try and get out of bed it seems to go to the bathroom but some nights she is too weak or tired and although she throws her legs off the side of the bed she can't do the sit-up required to sit on the edge of the bed then stand up and she gives up and lays back down with her legs still dangling off the side of the bed at an angle.
Whenever I find her that way her diaper is usually full of liquid. So it seems like an aborted attempt to get up and out of bed to go to the bathroom (which usually has as the first step swinging your legs over the side of the bed).
As a solution I try to have my mom walk in the mall for about a half hour a few times a week even though we go from bench to bench to keep up her strength and some light weights. Also when she is sitting with me I start doing leg lifts in my chair or raising my knees to my chest, sometimes she'll just start mimicking me and do it but if not I'll tell her to try and see if she can do it it. This helps strengthen her abs a bit. Still it's a tough battle. keeping their strength up seems almost impossible as they age.
This method is still working very well.