Audio Hallucinations

Hey…
Just wondered if anyone else has experienced/witnessed a person with dementia hearing sounds that arent there?
The person i care for hears a man singing morning, noon and night. She says he sings her name and loads of other things and claims “hes a rare singer” lol…
It doesnt cause her any upset at all which is good…but just wondered if anyone else has known this to be a trait of dementia? Ive looked it up a little and i dont see much on it x

Frank
Yes, hearing and even seeing people that are not there can be a trait of dementia. My lovely husband told me once that his grandad was having a sleep on his bed in the nursing home, so we should talk quietly. He never knew his grandad, he also heard a baby crying in the opposite room, no baby in the room, and the resident was in the lounge at the time.
As the singing doesn’t upset your caree, it seems you are going along with it. It’s real in her dementia world.

It’s more common than you might think, my Mum was exactly the same Frank -she would insist that there was a tenor singing in the back garden and that she could hear the church choir (the nearest church was a mile or so away !). She’d get quite cross with me if I insisted that I couldn’t hear anything and tell me I must be deaf !

My Mum was hard of hearing (had hearing aid which she wouldn’t use) and we think she also had tinnitus. Tinnitus is the name for hearing noises that are not caused by an outside source and is often characterised by hearing sounds like high pitched whistles, tapping etc. Always worse when it’s quiet, like at night. Apparently the brain tries to make sense of these sounds and translates them into something it recognises. I do have tinnitus and in my case it often sounds like birds “tweeting” or like that high pitched sound when a radio station is slightly “off” it’s wave length.

Thanks guys for taking the time to reply! I really appreciate it. Its good to be able to talk to people who are going through or have went through similar stuff. Totally get what your saying Susie…at first when I would say to my person no i cant hear it, she used to get peed off and look at me as if i was daft or taking the p…I quickly learned to just go along with her and I pretend I can hear it as well now. We get a wee laugh about it nearly every morning…as long as its not causing any distress theres no harm in playing along.
I get tinnitus myself the odd time …for me it sounds like…remember when you would switch on a television and it would make a noise before the picture came up? Well that, but for ages!x

Hi Frank

There is a book called “Contented Dementia” by Oliver James which advocates we live in the dementia patients world rather than trying to get them to live in our “real” world. You can get it through Amazon if you can’t find it in a local bookshop. It’s worth reading and may give you more ideas on how to manage your Caree’s condition.

Another one that’s very good is “A Selfish Pig’s Guide to Caring” by Hugh Marriott - it’s also full of useful tips on caring in general.

Hi
My Dad experiences extremely vivid dreams at night time mainly or if he falls asleep in his chair. He will often say to me mum “did you hear them talking” " there were people walking about" “there is someone in the house.” I think it can be quite upsetting for him as he gets confused with what’s reality and what isn’t.