My 91 year old mother has been in a care facility 6 months now. She is there because she is a large wheel chair bound woman that can no longer get herself to the toilet, into bed or into a chair--positioning; she needs help because of size and lack of muscle ability. The facility got new beds 2 months ago, and she cannot sleep in the new bed. She sinks into the foam mattress and what little movement she could do, now she has none and has said "it feels like I'm locked into a cocoon and cannot move." The facility has tried repositioning her once a night...between 12-4am, but she must call them to do so. This has not helped. I've asked if I could bring in a form topper, they said no, not for this medical bed. They suggested a muscle relaxer and after a week still same . And she is not quiet about this--when I arrive she will cry and state she can't live like this, she can't be "cocooned at night it driving me crazy, if this is it let me die." These words are very scary for me since mentally she is all present. I don't want to medicate her with sleeping or melatonin pills. I have slept in the bed, I think it is because of her weight and poor muscle tone that she cannot move at night in the bed, she is also use to a firm mattress. How can I find out if she can have a different mattress? She's on Medicaid...I have no money to purchase one myself. Need to know Iowa laws to know if I'm out of line to demand a different bed. Or ideas to support this mattress. It is a twin bed.
I can't think of any reason not to use medicine to help a 91-year-old woman sleep. If she were more mobile and could get around by herself, you might be concerned medicine might cause her to fall, but that isn't the case.
You seem to have eliminated the one thing - meds - that might help her. Time to rethink your previous thoughts. The situation has changed. Your way of dealing with it should too.