Last night my husband woke me up urgently to help a baby about to be born. Is that a hallucination or a delusion?

Hard to say, but I would report this to his doctor; it might be a UTI. In any event, it's a change in mental status and as such should be reported.

You're such a good wife!

Was he an EMT, nurse, NP, or doctor when he was working?

Sorry to hear what happened. I would check with a doctor and see if this might be a side effect of a medication he is taking or something else.

Garden Artist,
No he wasn't but I was a nurse and he started the request with "nurse"...! What would you suppose?

Interestingly my husband has had same idea but was about school & gathering things for kids. At the time he also talked nonstop. We were traveling first time & second nite I had to sleep to drive so gave him Tylenol PM. Next day back to his normal so now at a few nights when he talks constantly I give him half a pill & it works. First time I thought here we go into stage 6 or 7 but no back to his normal. So he does talk in his sleep sometimes. He's very easy to care for & been 9 yrs.

Luv, I was thinking that if he had been in a medical position during his working life, he might have been reminiscing or seguing back to that time. Since you were a nurse, perhaps he was thinking he was your patient.

Sometime ago a poster wrote that her mother could become anxious finding and rounding up "all the babies". While I don't remember all the details, I believe that she had lost a child when she was younger. I think the trauma of that death presented itself later in life.

I think that notwithstanding dementia and old age issues, we don't really fully understand the nature of dreams. I still have them about my sister, who died in 2003. In my dreams, she's alive and healthy. I had intense dreams also right after my mother and sister died fairly close together.

Ambien is another possibility. Two of my family members and one friend said they had very unsettling dreams when they took Ambien, which is why they didn't take it after realizing it caused disturbing dreams.

I too, have had problems with vivid, disturbing dreams when taking ativan. Dreams at times were extremely frightening. Ativan is known for that side effect.

Sleep disturbances are a frequent companion to dementia. Yes, I think you did the right thing not to bring it up the next day. I also think it would be good to report this to his doctor, especially if it occurs again soon.

I recall reading a post from a woman whose husband insisted there was a fish hook in the blanket. Failing to calm him down with reassurances, she went out and came back with a pliers and with something else in her closed hand. She showed him the pliers and with her back to him she put a fishing fly in it, turned around and exclaimed, I got it! Her satisfied husband went back to sleep. She showed him that she took his concerns seriously and that she would do her best to care for him. The "removal" of the fish hook was secondary.

As to whether it was a delusion or hallucination, I guess that depends on if he was seeing what he was describing.

My mom woke me up frantic telling me I forgot the baby. Don't I hear it crying? She hears babies a lot. This would not have been so bad but she has been in the hospital and broke her pelvis and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at a special psych. Unit in the hospital. I was staying at her house in my old bedroom and for a 1/2 second I forgot I was 55 and my kids were grown up and I was married! Funny but really scary too. My Mom also had a bad U.T.I. abd in the hospital and skilled nursing unit was the first time I ever saw her crazy sleep disturbances. She would also sit up in bed and yell. New meds. Helping so much now. Hang in there.

Alzheimer's patients sometimes hear things that are not there. Singing, band music, someone crying for help, etc. I have read some will go outside their home looking for the person who is crying for help then when they turn around nothing looks familiar to them any longer so they just keep walking and end up getting lost. This has something to do with the auditory section of the brain. My own mother heard a man singing tenor a lot. Fortunately, this stage didn't last long.

This is normal for Alzheimer's... Usually stages 5-6. My mom would tell us there was a little boy who was lost and we needed to help him. I would call his mom and dad to come pick him up...all would be well until next time he was lost ;-). I think it is best to just acknowledge their concern, and find a fiblet to address it. I do agree with earlier person, tell the doctor and check for UTI. You are a wonderful wife.

My husband had vascular dementia, and (usually when I was not at home) had hallucinations of people being in the house. Once he said they took all of his medications, which were indeed missing. Maybe he was suffering from an overdose?

During my father's last year he was completely rational most of the time, but about once a week or so he would have delusions, sometimes with hallucinations. The strangest one was when he was convinced he was standing and wanted to be put back into bed (where he already was). I was able to convince him he was already in bed by explaining to him that I'm perpendicular to him and my feet are flat on the floor. He was always quite a logically-thinking person so this was sufficient. On another occasion (I forgot what the specific delusion was), I convinced him of what was real simply by asking "Dad, have I ever lied to you?" which caused him to accept my explanation. For the most part I was able to keep him grounded in reality; in a few cases there was no danger or problem with his being convinced of something delusional so I didn't make much of an effort to challenge them.

My mom had several episodes of what I would call "waking dreams." She once saw a little boy in her room and couldn't figure out why he was there. Another time, late at night after everyone was sound asleep, I heard someone coming through our front door. I got up to investigate and found my mom trying to get back into the house. She had gotten up from her bed and walked outside to see where my dad was planning on driving "the girls" (my sisters and me). I told her that I thought that she had just had a "waking dream," calmed her down and convinced her to go back to bed. From that point on, we installed locks high up on the doors where she couldn't reach. I think that those dreams were all part of her dementia. After awhile, they disappeared.

My mom was prescribed Gabapentin, for pain... only gave her one tablet before bedtime...
She came to my room like 1 am in a panic asking where my dad went. He passed two years earlier. She said he was lying next to her and then when she turned towards him he was gone. She was searching around for him... looking in bathrooms, etc. and then wanted to get her shoes to go outside looking for him. I realized the risk of telling her the truth but I had no choice as she was becoming more and more panicked.. When I told her she was dreaming and dad passed two years ago she started screaming as if she was told for the very first time. She went into hysterics and crying uncontrolably... turning pale and looking faint. I called paramedics. She cried in the ER for hours... finally came back to reality. The ER doctor diagnosed it as dementia related. I asked about the Gabapetin and he was dismissive and said no, that drug doesn't cause this type of reaction. I then Googled the side effects and read all kinds of horror stories. That was an awakening for me too... to see the blatant and insistent misdiagnosis. She never took that med again and hasn't had that type of episode again, thank God.

My Mom suffered from this very thing. Dreams and TV all become a part of their reality. They can differentiate between the three. My Mom was watching "Murder she wrote" one day and told me Dick VanDyke wanted to talk to me. She would talk about something that she thought had happened, I knew it didn't, but I'd say "you must have dreamed it. She say "OK" and go back to whatever she was doing. They aren't delusional, it's hallucinations. My Mom was told by her neurologist that this would happen. She was always seeing a little girl and telling me she was doing something she wasn't suppose to. I would tell her I saw no little girl and she would say "she must have left" and go back to what she was doing. I would love to be in their heads and see what they see. Could be a memory from the past or something (like dreams) that the mind makes up. I think you handled it well and I wouldn't worry about it but would bring it up at next doctors visit. Now if he becomes combative or very agitated, it could be a UTI. Then you need to get him to the doctors right away. UTI's seem to kill men faster than women.

My mom is blind in one eye vascular dementia...eye doc says due to loss of vision your brain makes up for the loss by seeing things differently than they r or things that aren't there..eye doc says it's called BONNETS SYNDROME...she's had UTI several x...when she was still living in her apt she called my sister several x crying her to come over that someone was in the house sister went there and spent rest of nite with her..of course no one there..she said she saw my dad who's been gone almost 3 years get up from the love seat and walk into bedroom course she looked for him wasn't there...thing that was really scary was she saw an old with a brimmed hat (like they wore in ( 50-60's) like her dad wore come in her doorway and stand looking there she would shine her flashlight and he was gone saw A woman by her bed taking pictures of her shine light on her she was gone saw a woman dressed in white at the foot of her bed standing there she's shined flashlight On her and she sent to the floor my mom has had many episodes of hearing babies cry and thinking they are laying in bed beside her and they roll off into the floor I'll tell her mom if it was a real baby it would be crying to which she says yes it would if it fell on the floor but it was laying here in the bed with me and I heard it she also thought my dad was laying in bed with her but every time she would say these things and Sean her flashlight on them they would disappear her neighbor told me my mom said she was going to shake these images when she saw them again she had a gun that I got and took to my house which was only a pellet gun but the neighbors were scared she would suit their their wall and be a real bullet in it and kill them now that she's in Rest home she did fairly well starting out she's been in there two months and she has asked for a flashlight again I asked her if she was seeing things that she just didn't want to tell me about it and she said no I just need to see to get to the bathroom of the night even though they have a knot lot in the bedroom the sayings are really confusing and really scary I stayed with her at the hospital one night and she said she saw a big black man with his face pressed against the window banging to get in there was no one there we were on the third floor she also saw a deceased friend sitting in the chair next to her I told her that I told him to go home he need to go to bed and with the man in the window I told the Van to go home that we didn't want any company she wanted to call a friend of hers and was very insistent I finally handed her the phone and she push some buttons of course she didn't know how to use the phone didn't know you had to press nine then the number to call so she pushed the buttons and told me she doesn't answer and I told her mom she's probably had her phone number changed or she's in bed will try again tomorrow so in the case with my mom I don't know if it was all due to the dementia or all of it together it's very strange and it was very frightening to her as you could not tell her that the sayings weren't real had to take her to Columbus Ohio for a procedure and I spent the night at the motel room with her she got up every half an hour to go check on a baby and she had her flashlight with her and hollered at me all night long saying come over and get this baby out the floor it's Crying and I would tell say mom there's no baby over here and she's like well I guess there isn't but I heard Her cry....I tried to tell her things to calm her down and went along with her acting as though I Saul certain things and would tell them to go away that it was nite and we wanted no company really strange and upsetting

My Mom has LBD,and children and animals were frequent hallucinations. One minute she thought a deer was climbing on my wall,the next minute she was fine. She would get very annoyed if I didn't acknowledge whatever animal she saw.

My husband had hallucinations and delusions early in his dementia, which is typical of LBD. One night (2:30 am) he woke me and told me, conversationally, that there were bats in the bedroom.
Baseball bats?
No, the little animals that kind of look like mice with wings.
Ah, bats. ... Are they bothering you?
No. They are just sleeping here next to the bed.
Well, as long as they are not bothering you, would it be alright if we just let them sleep, and if they are still there in the morning I'll shoo them out?
OK.

Whew! I really did not want to get up at that ungodly hour.

Usually (but not always) LBD delusions/hallucinations are benign. And if there they are not disturbing to the person having them I don't see a reason to try to convince them of "reality." Dear hubby did not remember the bats by morning, and I certainly did not bring them up.

Sounds like a bad dream... Everybody has them.
Is there any reason to think this is more than that? If he forgot the dream, then it sounds like it is within the normal range of experience.
Does he have any medical background, or it this related in any way to any other life experience? You don't give a lot of context. Is this a replay of something that ever happened to him?
Does he take any medication that might cause this sort of mental perturbance?

@jeannegibbs--It's probably a good thing that it didn't occur to him that bats are nocturnal animals!