@cebecker5
Sorry, I don’t want to go “on and on”, or be a “know it all”, but just thought of a couple more things….an alarm on the outside doors that you can set at night to alert you if he goes outside, would be a prudent safety feature. (My dad does not have dementia, but my grandmother did when she lived with us back in the day before such things were available. It was a constant problem, her leaving the house….). If you have a pool, setting up the child’s safety fence around it is important (we know someone whose elder fell into theirs’ at night and drowned. So we put ours up and just told him we wanted to keep the dogs and their toys from having free access). Locking your cooktop and oven at night is also another safety feature (grandma would get up and try to cook but then would leave things on, etc).

My dad goes outside to smoke. I wake up the minute I hear him “on the move”, and he no longer goes out at all hours. But I’m still considering a ring camera or something and a lock that can be set from my phone—that way I could actually see what’s going on with him outside and make sure the door gets locked back up without getting out of bed and waking my husband. Nights are hard. I find I wake up even if he is “quiet”, so that I can listen and make sure he hasn’t fallen, left the water running, needs help in some way, etc. I hope you guys can have more restful nights!