Heal Your Acid Reflux While Sleeping

If you have suffered from acid reflux for a while, you’re probably tired of all the miracle cures out there. And you’re most likely quite concerned about the horrifying side effects of acid reflux medications.

So you’ll welcome a new study from The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

It reveals that you can drastically improve your acid reflux while sleeping if you just stay in the correct sleeping position.

And it’s not about sleeping on your stomach or back—it’s about left versus right.

Researchers from the University Medical Centers decided to compare the four common sleeping positions to see which ones posed the biggest and smallest problems for people with acid reflux.

They recruited 57 participants who had been referred to a hospital for pH-impedance reflux monitoring throughout the night. This involves the insertion of a little catheter into your esophagus that measures reflux, both acidic and non-acidic, out of your stomach.

They fitted their participants with a sleep position measurement device that measured whether they slept on their backs, stomachs, or sides.

While none of the subjects slept on their stomachs, the researchers learned that those who slept on their left sides had less reflux than those who slept on their right sides or backs.

When they calculated the exposure to reflux, they found it to be 0.0% (between 0.0 and 3%) for left-sided sleepers, 1.2% (between 0.0 and 7.5%) for right-sided sleepers, and 0.6% (between 0.0 and 8.3%) for back sleepers.

You can see the numbers going up, with the median exposure being the highest for right-sided sleepers and the maximum exposure being the highest for back sleepers. Both the median and the maximum exposure were the lowest for left-sided sleepers.

The researchers also measured the amount of time it took to clear reflux from the subjects’ esophagi; left-side sleeping was the healthiest here too.

The clearance time was 35 seconds (between 16 and 115 seconds) for left-sided sleepers, 90 seconds (between 26 and 250 seconds) for right-sided sleepers, and 76 seconds (between 22 and 257 seconds) for back sleepers.

So, why is it healthier to sleep on your left side if you have acid reflux?

It all comes down to gravity. Your stomach is located just below your rib cage on the front left side of your body.

If you lie on your left side, your stomach rests on the bed, and your stomach contents thus would need to flow upwards to get into your esophagus.

If you lie on your right side, gravity pulls your stomach’s contents downward from your stomach into your esophagus.

If you lie on your back, there is nothing that prevents your stomach contents from flowing into your esophagus, as they are on the same level.

Therefore, if you suffer from acid reflux, teach yourself to sleep on your left side, even if it requires tying a rope around your body with tennis balls that prevent you from lying on your back and your right side.

Your esophagus will suffer less damage.

But an even better solution is to permanently heal your acid reflux using three ingredients that you already have in your kitchen…