Overnight home care
You deserve to rest, too.
When you're listening for every sound or getting up again and again, a full night's sleep can feel a long way off. Overnight care gives your family a way to arrange help during those hours. Tell us what the nights have been like, and we'll explain the options.
Who can help during the hours the family needs to sleep?
An overnight caregiver can. With overnight home care, a caregiver comes for agreed night hours and stays awake the whole time, ready to help with a trip to the bathroom or a restless spell. You arrange it for the nights you need, and the rest of the house gets to sleep.
Through the night
A calm, capable person awake in the house
A good overnight caregiver is quiet and steady. They’re up and nearby, so the person they’re helping can settle, and so can you. Most of the work is practical:
- Help getting to the bathroom and back to bed.
- Settling someone who wakes up confused or upset, with a calm voice and a familiar routine.
- Keeping the night the way it usually goes, from the reading lamp to the glass of water by the bed.
- A note for the family in the morning about how the night went.
If your husband is used to the radio on low, or your mother likes the hall light left on, the caregiver keeps those habits going. Small things like that help a night feel like home.
Only the help you need
Ask for the nights, not the whole day
Some families need help every night. Others need a few nights a week, so the person who has been up with Dad can finally get some sleep. You can ask for nighttime help on its own. Tell us which nights are hardest, and we’ll plan around them.
If the days get harder too, overnight care can sit alongside hourly care or grow into 24-hour care, where caregivers work awake shifts around the clock. With live-in care, a caregiver lives in the home and sleeps at night, which suits households whose nights are mostly settled. Our guide to live-in and 24-hour care sets the two side by side.
How it works
From the first call to the first good night
Here's how overnight care comes together, and who looks after each part.
We talk about the nights
Tell us when the nights get hard, how often someone wakes and what usually helps. A registered nurse then visits at home and writes the care plan with your family.
A caregiver chosen for the night
Your Care Coordinator chooses a caregiver with the person they'll be helping in mind, and introduces them before the first night.
Awake through the shift
The caregiver arrives at the agreed time, keeps the bedtime routine and stays awake until the shift ends, ready to help whenever they're needed.
A note in the morning
Before they go, the caregiver writes up how the night went. Your Care Manager keeps you posted, and a backup is named in the care plan for nights the usual caregiver can't make.
The kind of help
Companion care or personal care at night
On a companion care plan, the overnight caregiver keeps watch, settles and reassures, and keeps the routine going. On a personal care plan, they also give hands-on help with the bathroom, changing and getting in and out of bed. We provide personal care in Connecticut and New Jersey. In New York, our overnight caregivers provide companion care.
Questions about overnight care
What does an overnight caregiver do?
An overnight caregiver stays awake through the night and helps with whatever comes up: a trip to the bathroom, settling someone who wakes up confused, a drink of water, keeping the bedtime routine familiar. In the morning they leave a note for the family about how the night went.
Does the overnight caregiver stay awake?
Yes. Overnight care means a caregiver who is awake for the whole shift. Live-in care is different: the caregiver lives in the home and has a proper night's sleep, so it suits households whose nights are mostly settled.
Can we arrange overnight care for just some nights?
Yes. You can arrange help for the nights you need and change them as things change. Tell us which nights are hardest, and we'll plan around them.
How is overnight care different from 24-hour care?
Overnight care covers agreed night hours. With 24-hour care, a team of caregivers works shifts through the day and the night. Many families start with nights and add daytime hours later if they need them.
Can the caregiver help with medication at night?
Our caregivers can give medication reminders, and they'll note anything you should know in the morning. When nursing is part of the picture in Connecticut, our separate company, Endurance Home Health, can work alongside us.
What does overnight care cost?
It depends on the nights you need and the help involved. Endurance is private pay, and if there's a long-term care insurance policy, we'll help with the paperwork. Call us and we'll explain the options and what they would cost.
See also memory support at home, respite care and how families pay for care.
Do we come to you?
We work across Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, by the hour, overnight, live-in or around the clock. Find your county on the map, or just call and ask about your town.
- Companion and personal care
- Companion care, any schedule
- Not served
Companion and personal care
- Fairfield County, CT
- New Haven County, CT
- Bergen County, NJ
- Essex County, NJ
- Morris County, NJ
- Somerset County, NJ
- Union County, NJ
Companion care, any schedule
In New York we provide companion care only: company, meals, errands, appointments and someone watching out for your parent, by the hour, live-in or around the clock.
We don’t cover every town in every county shown, so it’s worth checking the address. Check your town or ask when you call.
Talk with our care team
Tell us what the nights have been like
We'll call to talk through the hardest hours and the help that would make a difference. The first conversation is free, and nothing starts until you say so.
In New Jersey, call (973) 315-5323.