Heartburn

The Top Sleep Positions for Heartburn Relief

Your heart’s on fire. No, it’s not burning with an intense passion for a lover. It burns, painfully, with heartburn.

Fortunately, there are some helpful sleep positions for heartburn. There are also certain positions to avoid. Discover these positions by reading this article.

The Best Sleep Positions for Heartburn

You may not initially think that sleep positions can relieve heartburn, but guess what, they can.

Start by avoiding sleeping on your back whenever possible. When acid escapes your stomach as you sleep on your back, it can flow freely into your esophagus. Symptoms last longer and occur more frequently in this position because the acid can’t go anywhere.

Stomach fat can worsen your symptoms by pushing down on your stomach and thus releasing its contents. Whatever you do, don’t sleep on your back.

Also, don’t sleep flat on your right side. Doing so makes your body work against gravity to bring acid contents back to your stomach. As a result, you’ll feel a leaky faucet sensation as stomach acid is released into your esophagus’ delicate lining.

Now it’s time to see which positions to sleep in.

Your left side is ideal to sleep on for heartburn relief. In this position, you’ll keep your lower esophageal sphincter (LES) above your gastric contents’ level. That discourages refluxing.

If reflux escapes, it’ll return faster to your stomach than if you were on your right side because of gravity. Reflux on your left side is more gaseous, which minimizes damage from acid exposure.

Positions Galore

Another position worth trying is sleeping at an incline.

Doing so leads to less frequent reflux episodes. It lets your body clear reflux faster, too. Elevating your whole torso precipitates gravity to return reflux to the stomach.

As you may now be able to guess, the best position to sleep in to relieve heartburn is on your left side, at an incline. This position stops heartburn in its tracks by putting your LES above the level of your stomach’s contents. That’s the case even if your stomach’s full.

If you reflux in this position, gravity will bring your stomach’s contents back to where they belong.

In addition to alleviating your nighttime heartburn symptoms, this position protects your throat, esophagus, sinuses, and lungs from prolonged acid exposure. For an extra layer of relief, consider medications for GI pain.

Hearts on Fire

As you know, hearts can be on fire for several reasons. Maybe you’re in the honeymoon phase of a new relationship. Perhaps your heart is scorching hot for your faith or a cause.

The worst kind of fire in your heart is heartburn. Put the fire out by sleeping in the positions described above. Avoid the sleep positions for heartburn designated to be avoided above.

Your health is paramount, and it benefits when you take good care of yourself. Take care of yourself by browsing the Health & Fitness section.

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