Night Time Acid Reflux

One of the worse things that can occur at night is heartburn. Heartburn happens when acid, which is normal in our stomach, migrates to the esophagus. In the esophagus it will burn tissue, the esophagus is not designed to handle stomach acid. There are any number of reasons that the acid will migrate. Some of

these require a doctor's intervention, please do not let any heartburn go untreated. That being said, let's look at some of the causes that we do have control over.

If the heartburn is occasional, try to determine what caused it. Was it something you ate? Or drank? This would be best case, since once you pin point the cause, it is simply a matter of not doing that. Or even just

not doing it within several hours of bed.

Sometimes our stomach over produces acid, then there is no place to go but up. In a case like this, what is triggering the over production? Is there a change we can make in our lives to stop that trigger?

Night time heartburn, some times called acid reflux or GERD, can impair your sleep. In fact, in research done by the American College of Gastoenterology found that almost half of their survey group of sufferers reported sleeping poorly. In their control group, those without Gerd, reported sleeping poorly, but at a reduced rate of

just over 1/5 of the time. We see from this research, that GERD can impact the quality of sleep.

What can we do? It is a life necessity to sleep. And to sleep well. To sleep well for the long term does take some effort. Alcohol as an example can trigger heartburn, as can some spicy foods. If we plan when we eat or drink the triggers, then we can enjoy

sensibly, and sleep better.

Is there anything else we can do? The answer is yes!  At Hannah's we are all about sleep and beds, your bed can help with night time heartburn, heartburn will impact your sleep. Think about it, you lay flat

and that turns your body on end, now the stomach is no longer below the esophagus, but next to it. When the acid builds past the entrance to the esophagus, it will eventually start to leak in, and the more it leaks, the more it will leak. It is a catch 22.

What can we do to our beds to prevent that? There are actually several things. First, Comfortaire beds foster healthy waking posture, this feature will help keep the angle a little more positive, keeping acid

where it belongs. Second, all Comfortaire beds can be paired with a power adjustable foundation. With these foundations, you can raise your head even farther, which again helps the angle and raises the

esophagus in relation to the stomach, the good thing is it really doesn't take much of a raise to accomplish this, so even side sleepers can be comfortable. Third, we can raise the bed in other ways, consider

putting a pillow under the head of the mattress, or even a 2 x 4 under the legs of the furniture. In either case you will raise the head enough to keep the acid in its place. One counter productive way is to use a wedge on top of the bed, since that will disrupt your sleep posture.

We welcome you to our store to explore the options of better sleep, whether it is due to acid reflux, or any other cause, we want to help. We believe we have more options to improve sleep than any other

store in town.

Sleep Well!