This is in the category of a small tip….
My dad (with progressive supranuclear palsy) had been getting up in the middle of the night, thinking it was morning. Probably most of the time this happened he fell because he’s very tired and unsteady on his feet at the wee hours. Over half of his falls used to occur at 3am or 4am. I had been addressing the “cause” of the falls. For example, he would often fall at 3am while putting on his robe in the bathroom. I moved the robe to right next to his bed so he can put it on while sitting down. But then I addressed the larger issue of why he gets up in the middle of the night. I learned that he could not read the time on his alarm clock any more. The display was too small.
I went to the Peninsula Center for the Blind and Vision Impaired (650-858-0202) in Palo Alto, CA and found a large display clock for $26.75. Their supplier is MaxiAids (maxiaids.com, phone 800-522-6294), which sells the clock for the same price. It’s item #74852 – AM-FM Clock Radio with Extra Large LED Display. The numbers are green. Turns out that some low-vision people can see green better than they can white or red. Anyway, this clock solved the problem of not knowing what time it was in the middle of the night. Dad no longer gets up at 3am or 4am so those falls have been eliminated. (Unfortunately there’s still lots of other falling!)
The PCBVI and MaxiAids also have clocks that talk (say the time). We might have to go that route if Dad’s vision problems worsen.
Robin