Mother (93) is very hard of hearing. She can’t sleep at night due to “muslim chanting “ coming from the woman’s room next door (assisted living). She has complained to staff but they are all pretending to not hear it according to her. Obviously this sound does not exist and it’s phantom sound her brain is creating. She is very irritated by the staff that pretends to not hear it , even though they go nextdoor and tell her to turn her radio off. My mom wants to change rooms but they made an excuse as to why that isn’t a good idea. I don’t think it’s a good idea to try to explain the phantom noise to her as she is extremely proud and will get raging mad and tell me it’s real. She has taken to getting up and beating on the cabinets with her cane to make the lady turn it off. When your brain hears real sound it stops the phantom sound temporarily which feeds into it. My biggest concern is that she’s not sleeping. Experiences or ideas friends?
https://www.healthline.com/health/musical-ear-syndrome#takeaway
A good experiment to see if there really is noise coming from next door is to get mom some earplugs. The soft ones are particularly good for blocking sound. If she's STILL hearing this chanting after putting in the earplugs, the noise is originating in her brain, not from the next door neighbor.
If the experiment fails, get mom an appointment with an Audiologist. Hearing aids and/or certain meds may help with MES. I have very bad tinuntis in my ears and it's at its worst (loudest) when it's very quiet in the house. Earplugs make things worse for me because the noise is generating from within.
Best of luck to you.
However, you are correct in thinking that the likelihood is that there is no chanting or other noise and that this is an auditory hallucination that is exceptionally real to her. This is quite common in advanced dementias.
Your mother may need sedations. And of course given that they almost never now use rails and other devices you will be having to measure the risks of sedation and falls against her inability to sleep.
Wish that I had better ideas for you. White noise? A radio with calming music at the bedside? Discuss with the management there for THEIR ideas? Or maybe someone here with the magic answer. I surely do hope so.
Have they tried any meds for mom, if not I think it's time