Reply #7: No, drowsiness isn't a sign of Alzheimer's.

[PDJane]

Memory loss can be, but not the kind of 'tip of the tongue' memory loss, difficulty in performing familiar tasks, Problems with language, Disorientation in time and place, poor judgement, difficulty with abstract thinking, misplacing things, changes in mood or behaviour or personality, and loss of initiative.

The trouble is that the signs are so generalized, it can also be signs of overmedication, or distance from the community, or arthritis, or just general distraction.

ETA: I have dealt with Alzheimer's and know others who are doing so, with parents or grandparents. I have had a very nice elderly gentleman have a long conversation with the automated customer service at Bell Canada, I have sent photos of her new grandson to my grandmother, who had no idea who I was or that the child was her grandchild, I have visited a woman who was so organized that it took her children a long time to realize she did have alzheimer's because the organization was such a habit that she never misplaced anything, right to the day she died.

I have a mother, on the other hand, who does misplace her keys and other things, but always in plain sight, and who is getting more liberal in her views every day. She may be disorganized, but she's quite all there. She can't zip some of her jackets, but that's because she has two fingers on each hand so bent with arthritis that she can't use them.