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My grandma sleeps around 18 hours a day.
She is always exhausted.
This morning she wouldn’t even answer us or open her eyes when we tried to get her up at the normal time.
This is only the second time this has happened but it is quite scary. She finally responded 2 hours later, the rest of the day was like a typical day. She said she could hear us but was too tired to respond.
She has people around her all the time but there isn’t much she enjoys.

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All I can say is...I wished my Mom had slept during the day. Night time she got up at least once. She slept from 9 to 8. Great for me because I don't do mornings. When she lived at home she always took and afternoon nap. When she lived with me, no nap. She was easy to care for but a 1 or 2 hour nap would have been great.
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Becky139, even if your Grandma didn't have dementia, at 89 years old one is tired.... she has lived a long life.

You will find as you start to age that you will start to notice you don't have the same energy for things you had when back in your 40's and 50's. That is very normal. I am in my mid-70's and just taking a shower/washing my hair feels like a work-out at a gym :P

Have Grandma see her primary doctor, and have the doctor run blood work to see what are Grandma's Vitamin B level. It could be low, and that would make anyone feel like dozing off. It's worth checking into.
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Hospice used the increased sleeping as an indicator of decline for my Husband.
He went from sleeping 12 hours to 20 hours or more as he declined. He would wake to eat, when I changed him or repositioned him.
There is a great pamphlet that you can read on line that explains a lot of the sleeping and what it does. The pamphlet is called Crossing the Creek.
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Your profile states she is, "...89 years old, living in my home with alzheimer's / dementia, depression, and parkinson's disease."

There are many things that can cause her to sleep a lot. Also, "a lot" is a subjective opinion in a lot of cases. Does she have an actual diagnosis of depression? Or is that your opinion based on her behavior? As people age they sometimes naturally sleep more because they tire easily. Before anyone whisks her off for medical testing I'd check to see if she ever created a Living Will (also known as a Advance Care Directive) which outlines how much intervention she wants (or doesn't want) if she is no longer able to make this decision for herself. At the ER or hospital, they will likely be sticking and poking and prodding her and it won't be pleasant. There's a chance they won't get to the bottom of what's causing her excessive sleeping, and even if they do, there might not be a reasonable treatment. Just some things to ponder as you try to help make her life a little "better".
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Hi Becky, my Mom sleeps12-13 hours at night but that is interrupted for changes and positioning so it’s not continuous. She also takes a 2 hour nap late afternoon on some days. I let her sleep as figure her disease is exhausting. During her waking hours she is very talkative and engaged. My Mom has had TIA’s (mini strokes) in the past and has been unresponsive during them but returning to normal a few hours later. Has your Grandma had labs done to rule out a deficiency that might be contributing to her tiredness?
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