Why are heartburn symptoms more serious at night?

Eating a meal within three hours of bedtime and lying down can intensify the symptoms of heartburn, says James Rosser Jr., MD and surgery specialist. Learn more about managing heartburn at night.

Transcript

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When you lie down, you lose the advantage of gravity helping you to keep what you just ate inside your stomach and the acid inside your stomach

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where it belongs. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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Heartburn symptoms by themselves can be debilitating. But they can be a particularly big problem at night.

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At night, especially if you eat a big meal within three hours of going to bed, all of a sudden,

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that big meal has increased pressure in your stomach. When you lie down, you lose the advantage of gravity

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helping you to keep what you just ate inside your stomach and the acid inside your stomach where it belongs.

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When you lie down at night, guess what. Gravity is not your ally anymore. There's another little interesting thing

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that happens also. When you go to sleep, your normal protective mechanisms that would help you to cough or clear

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the acid if it came up into your throat, it's no longer there. So you're at a bigger risk to not only

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have the acid come all the way back up to your throat, but to go into your lungs, too. And after you have the acid go into your lungs,

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you face a potential battle with aspiration pneumonia. And you can actually have a big problem with that.