What does "sundowning" mean?

A state of agitation, confusion, or delirium, especially in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which begins daily at nightfall and which is alleviated by daylight.

Sundowning

Q: What is a synonym for "sundowning"?

Common synonyms include: nocturnal delirium, nocturnal delirium, sundowner syndrome, sundowner syndrome.

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A state of agitation, confusion, or delirium, especially in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which begins daily at nightfall and which is alleviated by daylight. uncountable
"Impaired judgment and sundowning (increased confusion when orienting cues diminish at night) often makes it necessary to restrict and protect the delirious patient."

Verb

1
present participle and gerund of sundown form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms

nocturnal delirium nocturnal delirium sundowner syndrome sundowner syndrome

Example

More examples

"Impaired judgment and sundowning (increased confusion when orienting cues diminish at night) often makes it necessary to restrict and protect the delirious patient."

Etymology

From sundown + -ing.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.