Have you ever laid down in bed, gotten cozied up with your warm blanket, and been comfortable with your favorite pillow to find your chest beginning to hurt? That uncomfortable feeling, almost like a fire, is burning inside you. It can be all too familiar and inconvenient, especially when it's bedtime.
Heartburn and sleep don't exactly go together well. It can affect your sleep negatively, making burning uncomfortable and painful. Learn how heartburn works and why it happens. Plus, how you can prevent heartburn at night.
What is Heartburn?
Heartburn is a painful feeling of stomach acid rising in your throat. Heartburn is an uncomfortable symptom rather than a specific condition. When you say you have heartburn, you might have acid reflux or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Heartburn and Stomach Acid
When you eat a meal, the food passes down your esophagus. The esophagus leads to a valve known as the lower esophageal sphincter. When food passes through this valve, it closes to keep your stomachs content down.
Within your stomach, food is broken down with an acidic mixture. Stomach acid production begins the process of digestion.
Sometimes when the lower esophageal sphincter opens to let food down, it doesn't close properly. This can cause some of the food and acid mixture within your stomach to come up in the esophagus. This is what's known as acid reflux, and it's what causes the burning feeling known as heartburn.
Heartburn Symptoms
Once you know what heartburn feels like, it's hard to forget, and you'll know it as soon as it starts. For most people, heartburn and GERD symptoms include:
- A burning sensation in the chest
- A burning feeling in the throat
- A sour, acidic, or burning taste in the back of the throat
- Pain in the chest that worsens when you lay down or bend over
- Difficulty swallowing
What Causes Heartburn?
Heartburn results from stomach acid coming up the esophagus and acid reflux. GERD is another underlying cause of the symptom of heartburn.
Acid Reflux
The primary underlying cause of heartburn symptoms is acid reflux, but what causes the reflux is not always understood. Risk factors include:
- Obesity
- Smoking
- Pregnancy
- High-stress levels
- Tight clothing or belts that restrict the stomach
The most common cause of acid reflux and heartburn symptoms is what you eat and drink. Foods that are acidic, high in fat, or spice are the main culprits.
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease
GERD occurs when you experience frequent acid reflux or even reflux of non-acidic material from the stomach. It is also known as chronic acid reflux.
If you experience regular, frequent heartburn, you must talk to your doctor about it. Untreated gastroesophageal reflux disease can lead to inflammation, damage to the esophagus, and even cancer.
What Causes Heartburn at Night?
If your heartburn is worse at night, you're not alone. It's a matter of physics. When you lie down after eating, food and acid from the stomach can more easily penetrate the esophagus than sitting or standing.
Everything that puts you at risk for acid reflux and GERD also increases the chances that you'll experience nighttime heartburn.
Whether you have the other risk factors or not, how you drink and eat before bed can cause nighttime heartburn.
Large Meals Too Close to Bedtime
You are more likely to experience nighttime heartburn symptoms if you eat a heavy meal or a lot of food within a couple of hours of lying in bed.
Your stomach is working to digest the food, producing acid, increasing the chances that it will work its way up your esophagus.
Fatty, Acidic, Spicy Foods Before Bed
Fat and acid can trigger heartburn at any time, but the risk is even higher combined with lying down. There are a couple of reasons fat causes heartburn:
- Fats take longer to digest, so you have food and acid in your stomach for longer.
- Fats release a hormone that relaxes the lower esophageal sphincter.
Also problematic are acidic or spicy foods. Acidic foods, like tomatoes, vinegar, citrus, and carbonated beverages, do not cause acid reflux but aggravate the issue.
Spicy foods can also make heartburn worse but can also be triggered. Capsaicin, the compound that gives the kick to peppers, slows digestion. Like fatty foods, this means food stays in the stomach longer, increasing the risk of it returning to the esophagus.
Alcohol Before Bed
A nightcap might seem like a good way to unwind and get ready for sleep, but if you are prone to heartburn, avoid alcohol. It both worsens symptoms and acts as a trigger, especially heavy drinking.
Alcohol, like acidic foods, can irritate the esophagus and worsen the feeling of acid reflux. It can also relax the muscles around the lower esophagus, making acid more likely to rise.
Indirectly, alcohol can cause or worsen heartburn by affecting your judgment. You are more likely to eat more foods at night and unhealthy foods when drinking.
How to Prevent Heartburn at Night
Since heartburn is strongly related to your diet and habits, there are steps you can take to prevent it from happening. Simple lifestyle changes can make a big difference.
Avoid Certain Foods
Avoid all the foods on the bad list for heartburn. This includes fatty, acidic, and spicy foods, plus alcohol. You might have to do some trial and error to determine your biggest triggers to avoid. Most importantly, avoid these foods within two to three hours of bedtime.
Eat the Right Foods
You may have heard of different solutions before. Is yogurt good for heartburn? Or, maybe you heard crackers can help with acid reflux.
A few foods that can help with acid reflux and heartburn are:
- Alkaline foods like nuts, bananas, and cauliflower
- Watery foods like watermelon, herbal tea, and celery
- High-fiber foods like oatmeal, carrots, and brown rice
Saltine crackers may help with acid reflux. Evidence shows they soak up acid that sits in the stomach, causing heartburn.
Yogurt may also be a great choice because of the concentration of probiotics within it that can help normalize bowel function. It could also provide a cooling sensation that can help ease the burning feeling you experience with heartburn.
Other Lifestyle Changes
There are also a few lifestyle changes you can make that might make a difference and prevent heartburn from occurring so frequently:
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Limit your alcohol intake
- Keep a low-carb diet, and limit high-fat foods
- Avoid drinking too much coffee and other caffeinated beverages
Home Remedies for Heartburn
If you experience heartburn at night, make lifestyle and diet changes for long-term relief. In the short term, try these home remedies and over-the-counter solutions:
- Prevent nighttime heartburn by sleeping with your upper body elevated and letting gravity work for you. This will make it more difficult for stomach acid to rise to the esophagus.
- Sleep on your left side for a similar effect and to keep acid flowing correctly through the stomach.
- Enjoy a cup of herbal tea before bed. Some teas are great for settling the stomach and reducing acid. Try chamomile or ginger.
- Chew sugar-free gum to increase saliva. Saliva is a natural way to neutralize stomach acid.
- Relieve heartburn with otc medications, like proton pump inhibitors. Other medications that might help include antacids, which neutralize stomach acid.
When to See Your Doctor for Heartburn at Night
See your doctor if you change your diet, lose weight, avoid alcohol, and try home remedies but still experience heartburn at night.
They can find or rule out underlying causes, treat any underlying conditions, and provide other solutions for managing symptoms. They might prescribe a heartburn treatment, for instance, that is more effective than over-the-counter medications.
Battling Heartburn to Get Better Sleep
Heartburn and sleep are something many of us end up having to deal with. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to prevent it and reduce its chances.
Many of the lifestyle changes that reduce the risk of getting heartburn also promote better sleep:
- Exercise and watch what you eat to maintain a healthy weight.
- Avoid fatty foods.
- Avoid alcohol before bed and heavy drinking in general.
- Quit smoking.
- Reduce and manage stress.
Anything else you can do to improve your sleep quality will also, in turn, help you better manage nighttime heartburn. Create a soothing, relaxing bedtime routine. Make your sleep environment more comfortable.
Listen to relaxing music before bed, and avoid reading emails or scrolling through social media at night. Use regular meditations to reduce anxiety and manage stress. These physical and mental health choices make for better sleep and less heartburn.
Although BetterSleep doesn't offer a solution to any heartburn issues, we can help you have a better night of sleep through meditations, a library of sleep sounds and music, sleep hypnosis, and other methods. If you're feeling overwhelmed and dealing with sleep insomnia, BetterSleep has your back; try it for free today!
