Brianna, it is a well known and widespread phenomenon amongst those
suffering from dementia.  It can be extremely stressful to have to deal
with.   My mother in law would become very agitated and frankly quite
annoying in the late afternoons.   She would say she wanted to go home and
demand answers about this or that, and be a bit aggressive about it.   We
would try to tell her she was already home but she wanted to go back to her
previous home.   We would placate her and tell her that we would take her
home in the morning, or that we would take her home "on saturday" or "on
monday" or whatever would soothe her.   Of course she never remembered it
the next morning.   She would wake up sweet tempered and easygoing, but by
every evening it was pretty much the same thing.   Others have reported this
phenomenon as well.   We offset it by giving her evening medication right
after her dinner.   That would calm her down and would get her through the
evening till bedtime.

Hi Brianna,

There are lots of reasons for sundowning, if you think about it.
People with dementia are usually at their best when they are well
rested, relaxed, fed etc.

In the early evening, its the end of a long stressful day for them,
and they may be tired. There is often a lot of bustle and activity at
that time of the day which they can find confusing and overwhelming -
family members coming home (or staff changing shifts), dinner
preparation, serving and clean up etc. Light levels are getting lower,
which is very hard for them, because of their perception problems -
made worse by changes in light levels in the house (i.e. overall
darker, punctuated by areas of bright light). There may be more noise/
conversation from family members, the TV, music playing. They may be
hungry or need to use the bathroom. There may be prebed activities
like getting cleaned up, changing clothing, brushing teeth etc. that
are adding to the stress.  Everything kind of converges resulting in
agitation.

Its super common.

M.