She's in a lovely memory care facility and they come in periodically to reassure her, but the net result is that she's awake most of the night, sleeps much of the day, and then cannot doesn't fall asleep again until the wee hours the following night, leading to more hallucinations. I've asked the staff to get her up earlier and encourage earlier bedtimes (like 10p), but they give me some baloney about "resident rights." She's becoming less engaged in daily activities she still enjoys largely b/c she's too sleepy to participate. It's become a vicious cycle!
Like Gladimhere, when my mom began trying to escape, cutting through her ankle monitor twice, we decided she needed to be in the secure unit. It wasn’t “Memory Care” because there was no memory to care for. The staff was specially trained to care for their patients. They knew which meds were more likely to work and what side effects they might have. The unit was smaller and there was more staff. I was very happy with the care she got there.
My mom did the same. I'd keep her awake all day only to have her awake all night. She would talk to God (please dear God, save me.), hallucinate seeing her mom and dad, pick at her clothing and diaper to get naked in the bed so she could pee on the floor (that one really got to me since I was taking her to the bathroom 2-3 times a night), occasionally scream at the top of her lungs in the wee hours of the morning, etc.
If she fell asleep on the couch she seemed to awaken less frequently. When we would put her to bed in her room, the agitation started. One of us was always with her in the bedroom due to the urinating problem.
We went through 3 different meds to help her sleep (no sleeping pills however). Nothing worked. It's just part of the disease. That's one of the reasons we could no longer care for her in our home. The c/g can't be awake 24/7.
As they age with dementia, it's too bad that they get more and more agitated and, other than drugging them into oblivion, nothing else works. :(