Question
Is it normal to feel hot at night when taking Atripla?
19 January 2012. Related: All topics, Side effects.
I have been taking Atripla for 5 months but still get very hot at night on occassion.
Is this normal?
Answer
Feeling hot at night as a symptom on its own may not be a side effect of Atripla. Are you experiencing other symptoms? People taking Atripla [which contains three drugs, efavirenz, tenofovir and FTC] usually experience other side effects including sleep disturbances, mood changes and anxiety. For most people these are mild and generally become easier to manage over time.
If, however, you are experiencing these side effects and find that it is affecting your quality of life, an option is to switch to another drug. Switching should be relatively easy. Your doctor will be able to advise you accordingly.
For more information on managing side effects, please follow this link to our guide on HIV and your quality of life.
Best wishes.
Hi Alex,
As Angelina says here, feeling hot at night as a symptom on its own may not be a side effect of Atripla.
Do you mean you’ve been on Atripla for one and a half years? It looks as though it’s working really well. You have a strong CD4 count and an undetectable viral load.
What does your doctor say about these symptoms?
I have been on Atripla for a 1 1/2 i take it at night. My body temperture feels hot sometime though. I have CD4 of 780 and VL of <20. I dont feel sick or anything but I just feel really hot.
Hi Nkosinathi,
As it says on this question above, feeling hot may not be a side effect of Atripla. You can see more here about side effects and how best to take the meds. However, we are all different, so fizzy drinks might be okay for people. You can talk to the doctor about your symptoms to find out what’s causing them.
You should be careful for what you eat and drink before you take you atripla. You feel hot especial when you drink acidic or feezy drinks and fruit like oranges apples and grapes. My advice avoid these drinks and food stuff. Take light meal fat free . Remember this treatment can be taken on an empty stomach
Hi,
You should speak to you doctor or clinic. It sounds like the symptoms you are describing are related to your treatment. Your clinic will be able to tell you how to treat these symptoms of of there are other combinations available.
I’m taking my HIV drugs at 10pm because im avoiding feelingg dizzy, but now i feel hot at night and am vomiting in the morning.
Hi Michael,
How long have you been taking Atripla? It’s not unusual to have trouble sleeping with this medication, but this temperature change is unusual. It’s important to talk to your doctor about this incase this is a sign of an underlying infection.
I get hot about an hour or two after taking Atripla, like my body is exuding heat quickly. It makes it difficult to sleep as I am constantly shifting from one side of the bed to the cooler side, and back. I told the pharmacist and she said she hadn’t heard of that side effect.
As with any side effect, this is something that you need to discuss in detail with your doctor. This type of symptom would not be caused by your immune system responding to treatment.
Once on treatment, your care needs to be managed as an individual. Because treatment affects different people in different ways, your doctor will be better able to say whether this is a side effect of efavirenz or something else.
I’ve been on Atripla for about 7 1/2 months now also and though the major symptoms have mostly subsided I do feel like my body is overheating when the drug kicks in. Has it always done this and I never noticed because the other reactions were so much more severe? Is this normal? Is it because my immune system is getting kicked up a gear by the drug itself?