How to temporarily treat heartburn in the early morning

In My Humble Opinion
1

For the past week or so, I have had a nasty stomach bug. I haven’t actually thrown up, but I’ve been tired, nauseous, had gas, stomach pain, a fever, etc.

I’m finally feeling better and relatively normal, except for the past two mornings around 5 AM I’ve woken up with really, really bad heartburn/acid reflux, bad enough to prevent me from sleeping or even staying in any one position comfortably.

Normally, I almost never get heartburn in any situation, and I wake up around 7 or 8. I’m 27 years old with no other health conditions, in good shape, etc.

Both days, I ate a small breakfast of eggs and toast at 5 AM, and it quickly went away and I was able to go back to sleep. I didn’t eat anything unusual the night before.

I’d prefer not to have to deal with this tomorrow, I have a busy week at work and I don’t need to be missing sleep. I assume my stomach is still irritated in some manner from whatever illness I got, and that this will go away with time, but in the meantime, is there any OTC medication I can buy that will reduce these symptoms enough for me to get a good night of uninterrupted sleep?

I will see a doctor about it if it doesn’t go away in a few more days, but at the moment I don’t think it’s warranted.

2

Baking soda has always worked for me when I need quick temporary relief from acid reflux, A teaspoon of baking soda in a shot of warm water, wait 5 minutes and repeat if necessary (rarely need to repeat).

3

Drinking a large glass of water often takes care of heartburn for me.

Barring that, something like Tums or Rolaids might help if you don’t like zoid’s baking soda recommendation.

4

Tums if it happens, sleep on incline and on your left side to help prevent it from happening (I am not a doctor but I’ve had GERD my entire life).

5

If you aren’t the type to get too groggy, take a Unisom (Doxylamine) before bed. Seriously. It was recommended for me, for morning sickness/reflux, and really worked…but it made me want to go back to sleep by 11 AM. YMMV

Also keeping a juice box and saltines or Ritz crackers on the nightstand, for waking up early with heartburn, can help quickly.

6

If eating works, keep Saltines or oyster crackers on hand to eat when you wake up. They have baking soda in them to soak
Up the acid and fill your tummy a bit.

I wouldn’t recommend Ritz…they are too greasy.

7

I looked up yoga for indigestion, picked out 2 easy poses, and just do those now when I feel like that.

8

I was going to post this. A little bicarb will get rid of the excess acid, and baking soda is cheap, besides.

9

Nexium works better for me than anything else ever has, but it’s not a quick acting fix, it has to build up in your system for a few days before you start to get relief. But, for me at least, it’s pretty much “cured” me, as I haven’t gotten heartburn symptoms while taking it. My mom’s been using it for years (since back when it was prescription only) and her heartburn is a lot worse than mine, but it also helps her better than anything (she takes a higher dose than me, though).

For short term, ranitidine probably helped me the best, but sometimes even that didn’t work. Downing a handful of extra strength Tums was a last resort when that happened. Sometimes it helped, sometimes nothing did.