Question
Does stress and lack of sleep effect your CD4 count?
9 September 2010. Related: All topics, CD4 and viral load, Starting treatment.
Does stress and lack of sleep effect your CD4 count? I am HIV positive and am medicated. I work in a, recently, stressful job and have been going through a lot of stress in my personal life. My viral load is undetectable and yet my CD4 count doesn’t appear to be moving in any direction (which can be considered to be good) yet I would have thought it may have increased?
Answer
Thank you for your question.
A lot of things affect the CD4 count including the time of day it is taken, exercise, diet etc. Stress and lack of sleep can also affect your CD4 count.
To enable me to give you a more specific answer it would help to know what your CD4 count is and how long you have been on treatment. Whilst most people start to see an increase in their CD4 count in the first months after starting treatment, some people takes longer to see more significant increases. About 10% of people do not get large CD4 increases, even when thier viral load is undetectable, though this is not well understood.
Once you are on treatment the most important thing to monitor is your viral load. Your viral load being undetectable is a really good. There is little anyone can do to increase their CD4 count. For more detailed information please follow this link to a similar question.
Hi Adrianna, I am sorry to hear about he stress you are under. How are you managing this?
Do you know what your current CD4 count and viral load is? While working overtime and having less sleep, have you been able to continue taking meds daily at the same time?
When on treatment with a healthy CD4 count and viral load, this additional stress is not going to cause further problems with HIV. The problems caused by additional stress which you are finding difficult will be the same as anyone not living with HIV.
You can see here for information about stress from the NHS: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/feelings-and-symptoms/stress/
My work is so stressful and requires us to have overtime almost everyday which makes me leave work latest 1:30am and shd be back to work by 10am. I dont get enough rest and sleep. I am worrying already how this will affect my health. Been diagnosed positive 2yrs ago.