Is yours dad’s bed placed against an outside wall, and does he live some place where it gets cold? I’m working on plans for a padded headboard because the head of our bed is against an outside walls. It’s noticeable cooler up by the top of the bed, probably 15° or more in the winter. I dislike wearing hats, but an insulating headboard should help keep my head, and therefore my body, warmer.
And I’m going to agree with the idea of an additional blanket across the bottom part of the bed. Like a twin long laid sideways on a double or queen bed. And since it can be on the top, there is not much dexterity or strength needed to put it back in place in the morning.
Find some of those giant safety pins like used on kilts. That should hold em in place.
ETA I just looked, Amazon has them, they are called blanket or kilt pins…
I built a PVC tube frame as linked when I had a hip replaced. I had to sleep on my back for a few weeks and pressure of the covers on my toes drives me nuts. This worked well for me, but it uses up a lot of blanket length going up and over.
I too suffer from Points Of Cold Doom; one reason why I travel with an old fashioned wooly hat is to use it in bed. Andean hats may be even better: they usually come pompom-less and the earflaps may even help him put it on right.
Have you ever tried one? It’s actually pretty comfortable. One effect is that you don’t move around as much. I typically wake up in generally the same position as I was when I fell asleep. I got mine from https://www.mosaicweightedblankets.com/.
But I don’t think it would work in this case. It can be awkward to move with the weight. He would likely have difficulty manipulating the blanket with his condition.
My first thought was to take some long elastic strips, run them under the mattress, then secure the edges of the blankets/sheets to them. That way the blanket can’t be rolled off, but the elastic makes it not tucked down so tight that you can’t get under it easily.
I’m going to drive against traffic, here, and suggest maybe Dad is tossing and turning and kicking his covers is because he’s getting too HOT at night. Remember that heat is leaving the body primarily at the ends – that means the head and the soles of the feet – and if the feet are tucked under bedclothes they’re not able to relieve as much heat as the top of the head. Furthermore, trapping his feet under the covers and adding extra-wooly socks will be counterproductive.
Also, ambient temperatures change throughout the night, and not always in a smooth cycle. He may be overheating around the time he’s dreaming (and REM phase is when people are prone to act out their dreams if their brain’s lock-down controls are getting flaky with age) but a bit too cold by the time breakfast is served.
It seems to me it’s worth observing and asking questions (yeah, in the middle of the night, which might not garner coherent answers). Also, ask the staff how the temperature is set/maintained at night and at what setting(s). If it’s a centralized control, comfortable for most people might be too hot for Dad. If he’s overheating while asleep, his tossing and turning could be an attempt to shrug off the bedclothes to get cooler. Perhaps a lighter blanket or none at all would help.
Get a full-sized flannel duvet cover, and have him slip it on like a loose sleeping bag before he gets under the other covers. If he has neuropathy, anything tighter or heavier is going to make him miserable. You’ve got to keep it super soft and loose while still holding the warmth.
Overdoing the socks can lead to sweating, which makes the feet feel cold even as they desperately try to dump heat.
I used to use an electric blanket to heat up the bed before I got into it, then turned it off. If he’s at all forgetful though, don’t suggest it. With neuropathy he could get burned and not feel it in time.
The above suggestion about ambient temp is a good one too though. The elderly generation was taught to keep the thermostat low, but as we get older we need more warmth. Encourage him to boost it up if he can possibly afford it.
My mum has severe peripheral neuropathy - not diabetic, the docs call it hereditary, though they don’t seem to have any real evidence of that.
Her extremities randomly feel cold or too warm whether covered or heated or left loose or in front of a fan. I think the lack of nerve feedback is preventing her body properly warming / cooling those parts in some way. Not sure how it works but it seems really random.
She wears warm wooly slippers nearly all the time.
Could there be a draft in the room at night that targets the feet end? What if he tried switching his head end and foot end for a couple nights?
Also, some matresses have summer and winter sides, and some differ in the padding at the feet end or the head end. It’s a long shot, but maybe look at the matress label if they say anything about it?
New blankets? An extra long duvet where you sew snaps a feet from the feet end, so you can fold the feet end into a sleeping bag/envelope just for his feet?
I am probably similar in age to your father, and also suffer from nephropathy (diabetic) in my feet, so they frequently feel cold. But I don’t have this problem while sleeping, because the blankets near the bottom of my bed are held in place by a cat or two on either side. This also reduces my tossing & turning at night, which probably gives me more restful sleep.
Maybe visit your local animal shelter to get him a blanket-retaining device?
I have neuropathy, no known cause, etc. and suffered horribly with freezing feet in the winter. There is no ‘too hot’ when you have neuropathy. When you figure out how to get your dad’s blankets to stay put, get a rice-filled bag or a dried bean-filled bag which can be found at Bed Bath and Beyond or other home goods stores (google it) or at a flea market or people make and sell them on Etsy. Microwave it for 2 to 3 minutes and put it under the sheets at his feet. The bean filled ones are especially good and will keep his feet warm all night. I use them in the winter and could not sleep without them, they are wonderful and the sheets are still warm to the touch in the morning. FWIW socks make my feet sweat and make the coldness considerably worse. With the bean or rice filled bag I can go without socks and sleep comfortably.