You’re just about to doze off into a restful slumber when it starts: the nausea, fiery chest pains, and scorching burps that jolt you wide awake. When heartburn hits at night, it can seriously ruin your shut-eye (and probably your partner’s too), making it hard to nod off in the first place—or tricky to fall back asleep after a bout.
While the timing may seem…inopportune to say the least, it isn’t random. During sleep, you’re lying down rather than standing up, so food and stomach acid are more likely to reverse course and creep back up into your esophagus because they don’t have to fight against those G-forces, Craig Gluckman, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at UCLA Health with a focus on esophageal and gastrointestinal motility disorders, tells SELF. Cue all those symptoms we associate with heartburn, including, yep, burping fire, which we do to “relieve the uncomfortable sensation that this acid reflux causes,” Dr. Gluckman says. While these burps shouldn’t be painful, he says, the acid itself can be: It’s the source of that nasty burning sensation that gives heartburn its fiery name.
Heartburn can be aggravated by many external factors, including stress, smoking, constipation, and certain medications (and, ironically, poor sleep). Nearly everyone experiences it at some point, but frequent spells might point to a chronic issue known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Thankfully, certain lifestyle adjustments can help quench the fire. Before you turn to meds, you might want to try making these three simple doctor-approved tweaks to your sleeping and eating patterns first.
1. Move up dinner—and maybe make a few tweaks to it.
Reining in those late dinners and midnight snacks could provide some relief. In fact, that’s “the number-one [tip],” Lisa Ganjhu, DO, a gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Health, tells SELF. Try to eat your last meal or snack of the day at least three hours before you lie down, according to Cynthia Cohen, MD, a clinical assistant professor at New York Medical College. Gastric emptying—the process by which the contents of your stomach move into the small intestine—typically takes about four hours, so by sticking to this cutoff time, you’ll “minimize the amount of stomach contents that could potentially reflux,” Dr. Cohen says. Otherwise, the heightened digestive activity means there will be more stuff available to flow back up the pipes.
For the same reason, how much you eat at once might also be worth reevaluating. Larger meals are harder on the digestive tract due to their sheer volume, so reducing your portion size could also help ease acid reflux symptoms, according to Dr. Ganjhu. One thing to note: Water is a different story. In fact, you should drink more H2O if you frequently experience reflux, Amy Burkhart, MD, RD, a physician and registered dietitian who specializes in gut health, tells SELF. “Dehydration, even mild dehydration that doesn’t result in thirst, can worsen acid reflux symptoms,” she says. Fluids can help dilute that stomach acid, though you’ll still want to cap your bottle a few hours before bed to curb any nocturnal pee breaks.
Read the full article here
