Old Dog Restless at Night: The Eight Causes and How to Tell Them Apart

Written by Marc Brannigan, Co-Founder & CEO of HempMy Pet. Last updated 12 September 2026.

It usually starts small. Your dog gets up, circles the bed, lies down again. A week later they are standing in the hallway at three in the morning, panting, looking at nothing in particular. You are awake too, and you are doing the thing every owner does, which is running through worst cases in the dark.

Almost everything written about this lists the possible causes and then tells you to see your vet. That is correct advice and it leaves you exactly where you started, because the useful question is not what could this be — it is which one is it, in my dog, and how would I know.

So that is what this page does. Eight causes, side by side, with the specific observation that separates each one from the others. We sell hemp products, so read us with that in mind — and read the section on what the research does and does not show carefully, because for the single most-searched cause of this problem, the honest answer is that the evidence is not in yet.

Why It Happens at Night Specifically

Night is not incidental. It removes almost everything that was compensating during the day.

A dog with stiff joints is fine while walking and miserable after lying still for two hours — joint discomfort is worst on rising, and at night they rise repeatedly. A dog losing their hearing gets no information from a dark, silent house. A dog whose internal clock has drifted has slept through most of the daylight and is simply not tired. And a dog with cognitive change loses the cues that were holding their orientation together: light, movement, the household's routine.

This is not a fringe symptom, either. In a clinical review of cognitive dysfunction syndrome published in Today's Veterinary Practice, the authors put it plainly: "The most distressing behaviors are those that disrupt the sleep–wake cycle." Sleep–wake disruption is one of the named behavioural categories in the validated screening questionnaires used to assess canine cognition — it is not a vague complaint, it is a graded clinical sign.

The Eight Causes, Side by Side

This is the table we could not find anywhere else. The middle column is what you see. The right column is the tell — the specific thing that points at this cause rather than the others.

Two of these can be true at once, and in older dogs they very often are. Joint discomfort and cognitive change frequently travel together, which is exactly why the table has a tell column rather than a checklist — you are looking for which one is driving tonight.

The Three-Night Log: The Most Useful Thing You Can Do This Week

Before you buy anything, spend three nights writing things down. This is not busywork. It is the difference between a ten-minute appointment that ends in "let's monitor it" and one that ends with a plan.

Keep a notepad by the bed and record four things for every episode:

1. The time. Clustering matters enormously — 1 a.m. every night points somewhere different from random waking across the whole night.
2. What they did first. Went to the door? Stood still? Circled? Came to you? The first action is the most informative second of the whole episode.
3. What ended it. Urinating, being let outside, being touched, a light going on, finding a different spot, or nothing at all. "Nothing at all" is itself a finding.
4. How long it lasted.

Add one daytime number: roughly how many hours they actually slept between waking up and dinner. Most owners guess low by several hours.

Three nights of that fits on one sheet of paper and it will usually tell you which column of the table above you are in. It matters more than it sounds, because the research says this information almost never reaches the vet. In the survey work summarised in the Today's Veterinary Practice review, the estimated prevalence of canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome was 14.2% while the veterinary diagnosis rate was 1.9% — and in a separate finding, although roughly three quarters of owners had noticed behaviour changes, only 12% had reported them to their veterinarian. The gap is not a lack of veterinary skill. It is that the observations stay in the house.

Sundowning: What the First Signs Actually Look Like

"Sundowning" is borrowed from human dementia care and describes confusion that worsens in the late afternoon and evening. In dogs it is part of canine cognitive dysfunction, and the early signs are quieter than people expect. They are rarely dramatic. They look like small oddities you explain away.

• Standing at the hinge side of an open door, or on the wrong side of a gate
• Getting stuck behind or under furniture they have navigated for years
• Staring at a wall or into a corner for a stretch
• Going to the door, being let out, and standing there having forgotten why
• Less enthusiasm greeting you — not less affection, less recognition of the moment
• Forgetting a command they have known for a decade
• Starting to soil indoors after years of not doing so
• Pacing a fixed route, often in one direction

The clinical shorthand vets use for this cluster is DISHAAL: disorientation, changes in social interactions, sleep–wake cycle changes, house-soiling, changes in activity and anxiety, and loss of learned behaviours. If two or three of those are on your list alongside the night-time pacing, cognitive change moves up the list considerably.

Prevalence is high and rises steeply with age. The Today's Veterinary Practice review reports impairment in 28% of 11- to 12-year-old dogs and in 68% of dogs aged 15 to 16 in one or more behavioural categories. A review in Frontiers in Neuroscience puts it more broadly: the condition "affects up to 60% of older dogs, mostly dogs older than 11 years," and the authors add that despite being highly prevalent, it is "severely under-diagnosed."

"What Are the Three Stages of Dog Dementia?"

People ask this constantly, and it deserves a straight answer: there is no official three-stage system for canine dementia. The three-stage framing comes from human Alzheimer's care and from various blog posts, not from veterinary medicine.

What actually exists is graded screening questionnaires. The Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Rating scale (CCDR) is scored from 13 to 80 points, and the review above gives the published cut-offs: 13 to 39 points is considered normal, 40 to 49 means at risk of developing the condition, and 50 to 80 supports a diagnosis. A second validated tool, the Canine Dementia Scale (CADES), uses 17 items across four behavioural categories — one of which is the sleep–wake cycle.

This is more useful than a stage label, because it is a number you can repeat in six months and compare. If you want to know whether your dog is getting worse, ask your vet to score one of these now and again later. That is the closest thing to staging that the evidence actually supports.

What the Research Does and Does Not Show About Hemp Here

This is the part of the article we would rather write ourselves than let you piece together from product pages, and it needs to be split in two, because the honest answer is different depending on which cause you are dealing with.

For cognitive change: the evidence is not in yet. Say it plainly.

There is no published clinical trial showing that CBD improves cognitive dysfunction in dogs. The practitioner review of cognitive dysfunction syndrome cited throughout this article discusses selegiline, therapeutic diets and enrichment — and does not mention cannabidiol at all. Anyone telling you hemp is a treatment for dog dementia is ahead of the data.

What is true, and more interesting, is that the trial is running. Dr. Stephanie McGrath, Associate Professor of Neurology at Colorado State University, is conducting a blinded, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in thirty client-owned dogs with naturally occurring cognitive dysfunction, testing CBD alone and in combination with trazodone, to evaluate — in the study's own words — "the effect and tolerability of CBD with and without trazodone on disease progression." It is funded through Colorado's Institute of Cannabis Research, and results were not published as of this writing.

To be clear about our own position: HempMy Pet has no involvement in that study, our product is not in it, and we will not be able to claim anything from it whichever way it reads. We are pointing at it because it is the honest state of the question, and because when it publishes it will be the best evidence anyone has — including if it shows nothing.

For joint discomfort: this is where the canine evidence actually sits.

Every one of the five published canine CBD trials that met inclusion criteria for the 2023 Frontiers in Veterinary Science systematic review was an osteoarthritis trial. Not a cognition trial. Four of the five found a benefit on joint-related outcomes and one — the largest-dose study, using force-platform gait analysis — found none. We have laid out every dose used across those five trials, side by side with the durations and outcomes, including the one that found nothing.

One of those five is ours: a 90-day trial of our own full-spectrum oil in dogs with chronic joint discomfort, overseen by veterinary pain specialist Dr. Robin Downing with researchers from Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Thirty-two dogs completed it and thirty showed a benefit on veterinarian-assessed pain scoring. It was an open-label pilot with no placebo group, and we say so every time we cite it. The details are on our clinical trials page and the joint-specific findings are on our senior joint and mobility page.

So the logic is this, and it is not a sales pitch: if your three-night log points at joint discomfort as the thing getting your dog up, hemp is a supplement with real published canine evidence behind that specific use, and it is worth a conversation with your vet. If your log points at cognitive change, the evidence does not exist yet, and the things that do have published support are a veterinary diagnosis, possibly selegiline, and a therapeutic diet. Skipping the diagnosis to buy a supplement — ours or anyone's — is the expensive way round.

What has evidence for the cognitive cause

Since we have just told you what we sell does not have evidence here, it would be hollow not to say what does. From the same review: selegiline, a prescription medication, with 77% of dogs in one study group showing noted improvement after the first month. And therapeutic diets — older beagles fed a diet containing medium-chain triglycerides performed better on cognitive testing, and a diet combined with behavioural enrichment slowed the rate of decline. Both are veterinary decisions, not shelf purchases.

One honest footnote, because someone will ask: medium-chain triglycerides are what coconut oil is made of, and coconut oil is one of the carriers we use. That is not the same thing as a therapeutic MCT diet, which delivers a specific, measured proportion of daily calories under veterinary formulation. A few drops of a coconut oil tincture is not a cognitive diet and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

If You Do Try Hemp: Serving, Timing, and the Conversation That Matters Most

Assuming your log pointed at discomfort and your vet is on board, three practical notes specific to older dogs.

Timing is the part people get wrong

Given as an oil by mouth, most owners notice something within roughly 30 to 60 minutes; treats take longer because they have to digest first. For a night-time problem that means the serving goes in with the evening meal, not at midnight when your dog is already up and you are already awake. More detail on onset and duration.

Start at the low end and hold there

Our own trial started at 0.25 mg/kg and escalated only every two weeks, under veterinary supervision. That is a useful model for a senior dog, whose margin for a groggy morning is smaller than a three-year-old's. Our serving guide works from body weight, and every product page carries its own chart. Judge it over one to two weeks of consistent use, not one night.

The medication conversation is not a formality

Senior dogs are the most medicated group of dogs there are, and that makes this the most important paragraph on the page. CBD affects cytochrome P450 enzymes, which are involved in metabolising many medications — so it can change how quickly your dog's body clears a drug they are already taking. The drug does not become dangerous; it becomes less predictable. Tell your vet. We go through the published figures, including the liver-enzyme findings from our own trial, in hemp and CBD side effects in dogs, and it is worth reading before you start rather than after.

If the picture is more anxiety than discomfort, we cover that separately in hemp for dog anxiety, including where L-theanine, chamomile and melatonin fit and what the evidence looks like for each. And whatever you buy, from us or not, read the certificate of analysis — Cornell's review of the market found only 10 of 29 products contained cannabinoids within 10% of the label claim, and 4 had detectable heavy metals. Ours are on our lab results page.

Things Worth Changing Tonight That Cost Nothing

These are not a substitute for a diagnosis. They are the changes most likely to help across several of the causes at once, which makes them a reasonable thing to do while you wait for an appointment.

• Put a night light in the hallway and by the water bowl. If vision loss is contributing, this can change the picture in one night.
• Move their bed to where you are. Many older dogs settle for proximity alone, and it also tells you something if they do.
• Add a firmer, thicker bed and check the floor surface. A stiff dog on a thin bed over a hard floor is being asked to do something uncomfortable. Runners on slick floors help too, because the fear of slipping keeps some dogs from settling.
• Move the last meal and the last outing later. An empty bladder and a full stomach at 11 p.m. beats both at 6 p.m.
• Deliberately wake them during the day. The single most underrated fix. A short walk, a sniffing game, a food puzzle in the late afternoon. Daytime stimulation is one of the interventions with actual published support for cognitive decline, and it directly attacks the shifted-clock cause.
• Keep the routine identical. Same order, same times. A dog running low on orientation cues is leaning hard on the ones that remain.

When to Call Your Veterinarian — and When to Call Tonight

Make an appointment this week if:

• The night waking is new within the last month
• They are drinking or urinating noticeably more
• You are seeing two or more of the DISHAAL signs in daylight
• They have lost weight, or their appetite has changed
• Your dog is on any prescription medication and this started after a change to it

Call an emergency service now if:

• They are circling in one direction, pressing their head against a wall, or their eyes are flicking — these can indicate a neurological emergency, not dementia
• They are unproductively retching or their abdomen looks distended
• They cannot get up, or a limb is not working
• The panting is heavy and continuous rather than intermittent
• You suspect they have eaten a cannabis product containing THC — that is a toxicity and a genuine emergency, unrelated to hemp products under 0.3% THC

Do Dogs Get Restless at the End of Life?

Some do, and if that is the question actually behind your search, you deserve a direct answer rather than a redirect.

Restlessness in the last weeks can happen, and it usually comes from discomfort, breathlessness, nausea or confusion rather than from distress about dying. None of those are things you have to guess at or manage alone — they are among the most treatable parts of end-of-life care, and veterinary palliative medicine has real tools for each.

But night-time pacing on its own is not a sign that the end is near. Most of the dogs whose owners search this phrase have one of the eight causes above and years left. If you are in that harder place, ask your veterinarian directly about a quality-of-life assessment and about a comfort plan for the nights specifically. That conversation is not giving up on anything. It is the one that makes the remaining time better, and vets are used to having it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you calm a restless senior dog at night?
Work out the cause before you try to calm it, because the fixes point in opposite directions. Three nights of notes on the time, the first action, what ended the episode and how long it lasted will usually narrow it to one or two causes. Meanwhile, the changes most likely to help across several causes at once are a night light, a firmer bed nearer to you, a later final meal and outing, and deliberately more daytime activity so they are actually tired.

What are the first signs of sundowning in dogs?
They are subtle: standing on the hinge side of a door, getting stuck behind furniture, staring at a wall, going outside and forgetting why, forgetting a long-known command, greeting you with less recognition, and pacing a fixed route. Vets group these with the shorthand DISHAAL — disorientation, social interaction changes, sleep–wake cycle changes, house-soiling, activity and anxiety changes, and loss of learned behaviours.

What are the three stages of dog dementia?
There is no official three-stage system in veterinary medicine — that framing comes from human dementia care. What exists is graded questionnaires. The CCDR scale runs from 13 to 80 points, where 13 to 39 is considered normal, 40 to 49 means at risk, and 50 to 80 supports a diagnosis. Asking your vet to score one now and again in six months is more useful than a stage label.

How do I tell whether it is pain or dementia?
The most reliable difference is whether comfort changes anything. A dog in joint discomfort is worst in the first seconds of standing, eases as they move, and settles if you improve the surface they are lying on. A dog with cognitive change looks lost rather than uncomfortable, and stays unsettled even once they are comfortable. Daytime signs decide most cases: stiffness on stairs points one way, disorientation in familiar rooms points the other. Both can be present at once.

Can hemp help a senior dog settle at night?
It depends entirely on the cause, and we would rather be specific than encouraging. There is no published trial showing CBD improves cognitive dysfunction in dogs — a randomised placebo-controlled trial is underway at Colorado State University and results are not out. Where the canine evidence does exist is joint discomfort: all five trials in the 2023 systematic review were osteoarthritis trials, four of five found a benefit. So if discomfort is what is getting your dog up, it is a reasonable conversation to have with your vet. If confusion is what is getting them up, the evidence is not there yet.

At what age does this usually start?
Cognitive signs become common in the double digits. One clinical review reports impairment in 28% of dogs aged 11 to 12 and 68% of dogs aged 15 to 16 in at least one behavioural category. Joint discomfort often starts years earlier and simply becomes visible at night once it is bad enough to interrupt sleep. Age makes a cause more likely; it never confirms one.

Should I give my senior dog melatonin at night?
Ask your vet first, particularly if your dog takes other medications. Melatonin is used in dogs and is generally considered low-risk, but dose, form and timing matter, some human products contain xylitol, which is toxic to dogs, and it does nothing at all for the two most common causes on this list. It is a sleep aid, not an answer to discomfort or disorientation. There is background on melatonin for dogs in our encyclopedia.

My vet said "let's monitor it." What do I do now?
Go back with data. That answer is usually a reflection of how little there was to work with. A three-night log plus a rough daytime sleep total, plus a CCDR or CADES score if they will run one, turns monitoring into a baseline you can compare against in six months. If two or more DISHAAL signs are on the list, say so explicitly — the research suggests owners routinely notice these and do not mention them.

The Short Version

Night-time restlessness in an older dog is a symptom with about eight common causes, and the two that matter most — joint discomfort and cognitive change — look the same in the dark and need different responses. Three nights of notes will get you most of the way there, and it is the one piece of information your vet almost certainly does not have.

If it turns out to be discomfort, there is published canine research to draw on, and you can see the actual protocols on our page covering the doses used in the published dog trials, or start with hemp for dogs. If it turns out to be cognitive, the most valuable thing on this page is the part where we told you the evidence is not in yet.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your veterinarian before starting any new supplement, especially if your dog is taking medication or has a health condition.