Sleeping and your heartburn
Heartburn is a common condition and millions of people worldwide suffer from it. As if this wasn’t enough people who suffer from heartburn also then suffer from disturbed and lack of sleep! There are few things you can do however to help reduce your suffering and discomfort and increase your likelihood of a decent and restful sleep!
If you lift your head 3 inches off the bed this can reduce the flow of acid in your esophagus. This keeps it higher than your stomach and makes it difficult for the acid to flow upwards to your throat.
Sleeping on your left side also helps. This places the esophageal sphincter muscle higher than the stomach, also reducing the flow of acid from the stomach.
Don’t eat anything for at least four hours before going to bed, this will only aggrevate it.
Avoid caffeine and foods and drinks containing caffeine. This can cause your stomach to produce more acid making you suffer more. It also puts pressure on the sphincter muscle, which can leak if it is weak.
As you well know, a good night’s sleep makes a world of difference to your mood, sanity and energy! Although the above techniques can help they are not a permanent solution and you should seek medical advice for a proper diagnosis. This is also important so you can make sure your symptoms are not related to a mor serious condition. A good diagnosis will enable you to find the best remedy.
There are various medications to fix it. You can cure it for good, but need to seek proper advice in order to do so. It may be necessary to try and number of different medications before finding the one which best suits you. If in any doubt consult your doctor.