Sleep, Prospective Memory, and Immune Status among People Living with HIV

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Infectious Diseases
• Sleep Medicine

Background:

• Persons living with HIV (PLWH) often report sleep disturbances.
• Objective data on sleep continuity, total sleep time, and their relationship with cognitive function and HIV parameters are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To objectively measure sleep patterns in PLWH compared to controls.
• To investigate the association between sleep parameters and prospective memory performance.
• To explore links between sleep characteristics and HIV disease severity.

Main Methods:

• 24-hour actigraphy was used to monitor sleep for at least seven consecutive days in 96 PLWH and 96 controls.
• Prospective memory was assessed using a naturalistic, activity-based task recorded by the actigraph.
• Participants were balanced for gender and age.

Main Results:

• PLWH exhibited increased sleep latency and reduced sleep continuity (higher fragmentation index).
• Prospective memory performance was linked to sleep parameters in controls, but not in PLWH.
• In PLWH, longer total sleep time (over 8 hours) correlated with greater HIV disease severity (lower CD4 nadir, history of AIDS-defining events).

Conclusions:

• PLWH demonstrate significantly more fragmented sleep compared to controls.
• Increased sleep duration in PLWH is associated with more severe HIV infection.
• Sleep disturbances in PLWH may be linked to disease progression and cognitive function.