Let there be light (or, hopefully, not)

 

There are small changes afoot in this house at the moment and I'm really not very sure about them.  Mostly they're to do with light, or lack of it, and even though I'd been warned, they've taken me by surprise.  We've always preferred lamps rather than ceiling lights and for several years have only had one lamp on in the sitting room during the evening which has suited us just fine.  Ash watches his quiz shows, I watch something completely different on my lap top and nothing has a requirement for more light than that given off by a 40W light bulb.  Then Ash began to switch a second lamp on which was unusual but ok as far as I was concerned, still an ambient glow and nothing too bright, only now a third lamp has been added to the equation and it's right over where I sit with my laptop.  I walk into the room to find it's on and quietly switch it off and leave only to find when I go back in that it's on again.  For the moment at least I'm willing to go through the switching on and off each evening but I have a feeling that the third lamp might shortly be here to stay.  Then there's our bedroom.  For years and years we've slept with the darkness only broken by the red numbers on the clock radio which Ash bought me for my 18th birthday 42 years ago and we've been fine with it.  One of my favourite things to do is to draw back the curtains on a dark morning and lie in bed watching the sky getting lighter.  The first change here then was when I went back upstairs with the tea one morning last week to find he'd switched on the bedside lamp.  It hasn't happened since but I know it will and when it does my opportunities for watching the day dawn will disappear from view.  Finally, back to that very dark night time bedroom.  Two nights ago I shut the door, got into bed, turned to Ash and said 'alright?' as I do every night.  His reply was that he'd been fine until I'd closed the door, that he didn't like the door closed and  we NEVER went to sleep with the door closed.  Apparently he liked it open so he could see the light from the telephone on the landing as well as a couple of other things out there emitting a beam.  This came as a huge shock to me and, luckily, I was speechless.  I say 'luckily' because we all know not to disagree with someone living with dementia so 'luckily' I managed to keep quiet, get up and open the door a little.  Ash settled down happily after that but I was in despair thinking that I might end up having to sleep in a room lit up like a fairground (and yes I do know I'm exaggerating here) however the next night I decided to see what happened if I closed the door and plunged the room into darkness and do you know what?  He was fine.  So the problem has resolved itself for now but I think it was a sign of things to come and I'm not looking forward to it one little bit.

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Comments

Tehachap said…
Been there, gone through that. Several months ago, Robert decided we needed a night light in the bedroom so he could see his way around the room to go to the bathroom at night. Okaay... He NEVER gets up in the middle of the night, but I do and I don't need a light to find the bathroom, but to appease Robert I put a photo cell controlled night light in the alcove of the bedroom. It made it difficult for me to fall asleep, but there you are. A few months go by and suddenly, he doesn't feel the need for the nightlight and I happily unplug it. You just never know... I'm hoping he doesn't go back to insisting we have a night light. My only other problem is that he jerks and twitches in his sleep at night and several times, he's hit me and woke me from a dead sleep. I adjourn to the living room couch at that point...
Jane said…
I've started leaving the bedroom door ajar so Ash can see the tiny light from the telephone we keep out there. Because of the angle of the door he can see it easily but it doesn't put too much light into my side of the room. I know that feeling of being woken in the night and it's almost always because of snoring when, like you, I move rooms. it works as long as we're not past 4am. If it is I can almost guarantee I won't go back to sleep.
Emjayar said…
My shins get kicked like crazy some nights. I resorted to insisting Terry wears socks to bed to soften the blow. It's one very difficult and sad old learning curve isn't it?
Jane said…
It is a difficult learning curve especially as just when you've learnt that particular lesson the goal posts are moved but as long as I can keep learning and seeing those lessons as a challenge I think I'll survive and hopefully come out the other side a stronger person.