What is a dementia clock?

A large, simple clock that spells out the day, the date and whether it is morning, afternoon, evening or night in words rather than symbols. There are no alarms to set, no menus and usually no buttons a person can press by mistake.

Do dementia clocks actually help?

For orientation, often yes. Repeatedly asking what day it is, or getting dressed at three in the morning because the room is dark, are both problems a clear day-and-date display can soften. It will not help with anything that needs a prompt at a particular moment.

How much should I expect to pay?

Most mains-powered day-and-date clocks sit in the £30 to £80 range in the UK, and the more expensive ones are usually bigger screens rather than cleverer software. Paying more does not buy a better outcome here.

Digital, almost always. An analogue face still requires the skill of reading hands, which is often one of the first things to become tiring. A digital clock that writes 'Tuesday afternoon' removes the reading step entirely.

What can a clock not do?

It cannot say anything specific, it cannot handle something that only happens on Thursdays, and it cannot tell you it was looked at. If what you need is a prompt at a set time and a sign that it landed, that is a different tool.

Buyer's guide

Dementia clocks, explained
without the sales pitch

A dementia clock is one of the cheapest, calmest things you can put in a room. Here is what it does well, what to look for before you spend anything, and the jobs it will never do.

The problem a clock is actually solving

Time stops being obvious long before memory becomes the main difficulty. A dark afternoon in November looks like early morning. A nap after lunch resets the day. Waking at four feels like waking at seven, and there is nothing in an ordinary bedroom that says otherwise.

A dementia clock answers that one question, permanently and without being asked: it is Tuesday, it is the afternoon. Because the answer is always there, nobody has to remember to give it, and nobody has to feel awkward asking again.

What to look for before you buy

Words, not numbers alone. 'Tuesday afternoon' asks nothing of the reader. '14:32' asks quite a lot.
A screen you can read from a chair across the room — most families end up wishing they had bought the larger one.
Mains powered, with a battery only as backup. A clock that quietly dies on a set of AAs is worse than no clock.
Automatic time changes in spring and autumn, so nobody has to find a manual in March.
Few or no buttons on the front. Anything pressable will eventually be pressed.
A display that dims at night rather than lighting the whole bedroom.

Where a clock is the right answer

If the recurring difficulty is orientation — repeated questions about the day, confusion between early morning and evening, getting dressed at odd hours — a clock is a genuinely good buy. It is a one-off cost, there is nothing to learn, nothing to charge and nothing to subscribe to. We would rather say that plainly than pretend every problem needs a service behind it.

Where it quietly runs out

It waits to be looked at. If nobody glances up, nothing happens at all.
It cannot say anything specific. A clock has no way to suggest a glass of water or mention that a grandchild is ringing at four.
It has no sense of the week, so anything that happens only on Sundays gets no help.
It tells you nothing at all. You still end up phoning to work out how the day went.

What families often end up with

A clock on the sideboard for orientation, and something separate for the handful of moments that matter — a short message at eleven and at three, in words that sound like you, with a single button to tap so you can see it was read.

That is what You Care Reminders is for. It is not a replacement for a clock, and if orientation is your only problem you do not need us. Where the two overlap, they overlap harmlessly.

For context

around 982,000

people are estimated to be living with dementia in the UK.

Source: Alzheimer's Society

roughly 6 in 10

people with dementia in the UK live in their own home, not in care.

Source: Alzheimer's Society

Being straight with you

You Care Reminders is a non-medical wellness tool. It is not a dementia treatment, a monitoring service or an alarm, delivery is best effort rather than guaranteed, and it must not be used for medication reminders. In an emergency, call 999. If orientation is the only difficulty you are dealing with, a clock on its own may well be all you need.

Questions carers ask

Set the first reminder tonight

It takes about five minutes, costs nothing to start, and the person you care for has nothing to install.

Dementia clocks, explainedwithout the sales pitch