How I handled sun downing.. My husband started "escaping at night. The doctor suggested we lock him in his room, but he climbed out the window. Once, we were totally puzzled how he got out, and learned that the cat who could operate levered doors did it. You have to feel some humor in these awful situations.

The last straw was when he left in the middle of the night (we are on 22 wooded acres) and I found him when I woke up at 9am laying in a field, face down with hypothermia. An ambulance took him to the emergency room and he was back home later that day.
All on my own, I reasoned that if his body clock fouled him up at dusk, I would give him 10 mg. of melatonin at 4pm. Then another 10 mg of melatonin around 9-10 pm. It ended the sun downing. The only time there was ever a foul up was when my son was watching him and didn't give him his first dose until 6pm.