Can sleep deprivation make you sick?

[Anonymous]

Have a 4 week old who wakes up every 1.5-2 hours. Haven’t had a proper nights sleep in a month. On Thursday I felt incredibly tired and got a 100.8 fever that night. But by Friday afternoon I was fine. DH took baby for most of Thursday night and Friday morning so I was able to get more sleep (still waking to bf but doing nothing else). What do you think caused this? Can lack of sleep really make you sick?

[Anonymous]

Do you still need a virus or bacteria to be involved, but it can make you much more susceptible to getting sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you still need a virus or bacteria to be involved, but it can make you much more susceptible to getting sick.

Am I still infectious then? Should I stay away from my baby / is it safe to breastfeed?

[Anonymous]

I got a lot of low-grade fevers when I was breast feeding. Turns out I had mastitis for probably a month straight. It didn’t really obviously manifest itself until a month after I gave up breast feeding and I suddenly had a huge lump and what felt like a sunburn. Don’t discount the possibility of mastitis! I might not have been so miserable had I realize what was going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you still need a virus or bacteria to be involved, but it can make you much more susceptible to getting sick.

Am I still infectious then? Should I stay away from my baby / is it safe to breastfeed?

I would because you don’t know what it is (it might not be infectious at all, like if it’s mastitis), you aren’t coughing or sneezing or doing similar things that are very likely to spread infection, and it doesn’t seem serious.

[Anonymous]

You could’ve been dehydrated from nursing so up that water intake!

[jsmith123]

Wear mask & continue nursing

[Anonymous]

OP, yes, lack of sleep can make you sick. All humans have a bunch of bacteria and viruses in and around their bodies. Our immune system generally fights stuff off on an ongoing basis.

Your body needs sleep to maintain its immune system.

What probably happened is you had a low-grade something but your immune system ramped back up once you got some sleep and fought off whatever you had successfully.

[Anonymous]

Make DH take baby for a 4 hour stretch overnight so you can connect 2 REM cycles, you will feel way better

[Anonymous]

Yes, because your immune system is weakened.

[Anonymous]

You always continue to breastfeed even if you’re sick. It’s the babies best defense!

[Anonymous]

Did you not get a covid test yet?? Fever=covid test! Stat!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, because your immune system is weakened.

+1. This often happen to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you not get a covid test yet?? Fever=covid test! Stat!

Going to get a covid test would have been an exposure event if I didn’t have the virus so I didn’t want to risk it. The fever only lasted 12 hours and I was fine the next morning. No coughing or sneezing. I think I’m good rigjht? Or should I still get tested?

[Anonymous]

Realistically OP that is barely a fever and you have no other symptoms. You don’t need to stay away from your baby. You don’t need to wear a mask. You are exhausted and should do your best to sleep as much as possible and hydrate well.