Author: Gary Jackson

What’s the best sleep position to combat heartburn?

Acid reflux and GERD can interfere with everyday life and may also interrupt sleep. Some people feel like they’re choking on stomach acid when they suddenly awaken in the night. I mentioned above how nighttime GERD symptoms can be exacerbated by how we sleep. However, you can reduce or even potentially eliminate those symptoms by changing your sleep position. One study showed that OSA patients experiencing nighttime GERD symptoms had their heartburn scores drop by 62 percent when they used CPAP therapy consistently.

1. If you find that over-the-counter antacids don’t help with your nighttime reflux, ask your doctor for reflux prescriptions.
2. In cases where lifestyle changes don’t help your nighttime symptoms, though, it’s important to consult your doctor about further treatment options.
3. When your stomach is regurgitating digested contents, the acid could linger in your throat and irritate the esophageal lining, which could trigger a cough.
4. This can lead to aspiration (the accidental breathing in of food or fluid into the lungs) of the acid reflux, or choking (getting food or other objects stuck in the throat).
5. It’s also possible for acid to travel back up and reach the mouth, which causes choking.

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A diagnosis often brings relief, but it can also come with as many questions as answers. However, propping yourself up with pillows won’t be effective, as this only elevates your head and not your upper body. This will keep your upper body on an appropriate incline to prevent reflux and alleviate discomfort. If you’re suffering from chronic reflux, you might have awoken to coughing, vomiting, or general discomfort in your throat. People with GERD who want to sleep better may be helped by considering their sleep hygiene, which includes all of the elements that shape their sleep environment and sleep-related habits. While the main symptom of GERD is reflux, a number of symptoms may accompany this condition.

The uncomfortable symptoms of nighttime heartburn can make getting proper sleep difficult, but the way we sleep can also exacerbate those symptoms. Acid reflux and GERD are common conditions among adults in the United States—in fact, an estimated 20 percent of American adults suffer from GERD. To make matters worse, most people with acid reflux or GERD experience those symptoms at night, either during sleep or while trying to fall asleep. A substantial amount of studies found that reflux patients tend to get worse heartburn when they’re lying on their right side.

Virtually everyone experiences reflux from time to time, but for most people, it is mild, infrequent, and goes away quickly on its own. For people with GERD, on the other hand, acid reflux typically happens at least once per week and often involves more severe and bothersome symptoms. Most people with GERD experience an increase in the severity of symptoms, including heartburn, while sleeping or attempting to sleep. Understanding GERD, including its symptoms, causes, and treatments, can help people with this condition manage it more effectively and improve their sleep.

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Additionally, smoking causes more severe symptoms in patients with GERD. You may find that there are other foods not on this list that trigger your GERD symptoms. If you still have symptoms, prop up the head of your sleeping surface as much as possible to help you sleep. The LES then closes and stomach acid starts to break down whatever you just consumed.

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This can make it more difficult for your body to push acid reflux back into your stomach. You also produce less saliva during deep sleep, and saliva usually helps neutralize stomach acid. Saliva contains bicarbonate, which is a buffer that can neutralize stomach acid. As mentioned above, most people with acid reflux experience their symptoms at night.

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Talk to your healthcare provider about your concerns and symptoms, and discuss some of these home remedies and lifestyle changes. Together, you can develop a treatment plan to ease your GERD symptoms and allow you to sleep peacefully without interruption from acid reflux. In addition to the above, some of these tips may help you to manage your acid reflux symptoms. During the day, gravity helps send rising digestive acid in your esophagus back down into your stomach. When you’re horizontal while lying in bed, you don’t have the assistance of gravity to help send refluxed stomach acid back into the stomach, so it stays longer in the esophagus.

When your stomach is regurgitating digested contents, the acid could linger in your throat and irritate the esophageal lining, which could trigger a cough. It’s also possible for acid to travel back up and reach the mouth, which causes choking. The next time you want to lie on your stomach, make sure your head is elevated. Support your neck with a pillow and keep it a few inches higher than your stomach. This alone could push the stomach contents to travel upwards and cause heartburn. It is natural for people with GERD to want to know how they can reduce their symptoms and get better sleep.

Factors like alcohol consumption, smoking, and obesity can increase risk for both GERD and OSA, so the correlation between the conditions may be a result of these factors. It is possible that GERD affects the airway and ability to breathe normally, causing more apneas during the night. At the same time, people with OSA wake up frequently at night and may then detect GERD symptoms. Lack of sleep from OSA may make the esophagus more susceptible to reflux. Eating large volumes of food at a time may increase your chances of reflux and GERD symptoms due to increased stomach pressure. Eating smaller amounts of food at a time may help decrease the likelihood of food backing up into the esophagus, and thus improving symptoms of GERD.

Heartburn worse when lying on left side

Clothes that are tight-fitting, especially around your waist and abdominal area, put increased pressure on your stomach. This can push the contents of your stomach back up into the esophagus, causing heartburn or other symptoms of GERD. Allowing more time for your food to digest and empty from your stomach can help decrease the likelihood of acid backing up into your esophagus at night. Ginger is a known home remedy to inflammation, and is also a great remedy for heartburn. Boil some ginger to make tea; this can help relieve nausea, allowing you to get a better quality of sleep.

Debate exists among experts about whether GERD causes OSA, OSA causes GERD, or if they simply share similar risk factors. Acid reflux, also known as gastroesophageal reflux, describes a backflow of acid from the stomach into the esophagus. Occasional episodes of reflux are normal, but when they occur regularly, they can have serious consequences and are known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Get in touch with us today to learn more about nighttime reflux and how the gastroenterologists of Gastro Center NJ can get you the best sleep of your life.

If you don’t feel any relief after taking medication, your doctor might put you on PPIs (proton pump inhibitors) in order to reduce your stomach’s acid production. Similarly, it’s also the most beneficial sleeping position for pregnant women, whether or not they are experiencing nocturnal symptoms of acid reflux. Wearing tight pajamas can add pressure to your stomach, contributing to your acid reflux symptoms. If you find that over-the-counter antacids don’t help with your nighttime reflux, ask your doctor for reflux prescriptions. Medicine such as proton pump inhibitors can block acid production altogether and allow your esophagus to heal in the process. As a result, your acid reflux symptoms are alleviated, not aggravated, by lying down.