GERD wedge pillow

Any suggestions on a decent wedge pillow for GERD? I want to try that before I go raising the head of the bed.

We bought a very reasonably priced one at Bed, Bath, and Beyond; even used a coupon.
You might be able to print one off their website--coupon--not wedge!

Better yet, elevate the head of the bed by six inches with a stack of 2x6's. You will get far better relief and you will hardly notice the difference. This worked for me. I suffered from GERD for 25 years without knowing it. Elevated my bed and 95% of my symptoms, gone.

P.S. It helps enormously if you also sleep on your back. After just a couple days, most of my 25 year long post nasal drip and asthma symptoms disappeared.

chunkyfrog wrote:We bought a very reasonably priced one at Bed, Bath, and Beyond; even used a coupon.
You might be able to print one off their website--coupon--not wedge!

I bought mine there, too, but I actually bought two and stack one on top of the other. I normally have to resettle it in its place, so there is a little moving around, but it's not bad.

Mr Bill wrote:
P.S. It helps enormously if you also sleep on your back. After just a couple days, most of my 25 year long post nasal drip and asthma symptoms disappeared.

Hi All

For most of us with sleep apnea, sleeping on your back causes more events

and

for most of us with GERD sleeping on the left side is recommended in order to reduce reflux.

The wedge I used to use is this one -

http://www.the-pillow.com.au/general/ca ... wedges.php

cheers

Mars

I didn't like the wedge that I have. I like sleeping unbent, unless I'm on my sides. I prefer raising the head of my bed slightly.

Sleeping in a recliner is also an option.

Mr Bill wrote:Better yet, elevate the head of the bed by six inches with a stack of 2x6's. You will get far better relief and you will hardly notice the difference. This worked for me. I suffered from GERD for 25 years without knowing it. Elevated my bed and 95% of my symptoms, gone.

What he means is to stack 3 2x6' blocks on each side, do not use one 2x6' standing on it's 2' side to get that 6 inches

If you have a larger bed you may need to stack ~1/2 that on the center legs.

Headboard
X_______________X <- 6 inch high
_________________
_________________
________X________ <- ~1.5 inch high.
_________________
_________________
X_______________X <- No incline
Footboard

EDIT: Well the HTML in the forum is removing my spaces, but you get the idea

davecpap wrote:Any suggestions on a decent wedge pillow for GERD? I want to try that before I go raising the head of the bed.

I bought a wedge and it was unsuitable.

Later I found out from this forum that most wedges can actually make reflux worse. The wedge causes you to bend near the abdominal area and this can worsen reflux.

To avoid this you need a very long wedge that causes you to bend at the hips (below the abdomen).

So my second wedge was a long one. That worked fine as long as I slept on my back. But as soon as I tried to sleep on my sides or stomach, the bend at the hip made it problematic.

So then I did what I should have done at the start - raised the head of the bed four inches. This works great whether I am sleeping on my sides, stomach, or back. I did not even notice the angle from the first night and it very much relieves reflux with the help of gravity (a free resource).

You still need to use lifestyle measures (see Google).

I find my GERD like symptoms improve a lot if I bump up my minimum CPAP pressure a few points. I get fairly good numbers at 11 cmH20, but my throat feels a lot better at 13 cmH2O.

mars wrote:

Mr Bill wrote:
P.S. It helps enormously if you also sleep on your back. After just a couple days, most of my 25 year long post nasal drip and asthma symptoms disappeared.

Hi All

For most of us with sleep apnea, sleeping on your back causes more events

and

for most of us with GERD sleeping on the left side is recommended in order to reduce reflux.

The wedge I used to use is this one -

http://www.the-pillow.com.au/general/ca ... wedges.php

cheers

Mars

My GERD is only relieved if I sleep on my back and that was what the doc recommended for maximum acid relief. For me, sleeping on my side means either heartburn or sniffles within a few minutes. It just coincides that sleeping on either side causes so many centrals that I cannot sleep because of the pressure excursions. But as you can see from my sig, my pressure is so low that sleeping supline is no problem. My tech at the sleep study was curious why I should develop sleep apnea so late in life. Well, I was a stomach sleeper. My sleep apnea came on about two years after I fixed the GERD problem. Most likely, it was turning 54. Somebody else on here quipped that the body warranty runs out at 50.

Sleeping positions matter LOTS with GERD. Granted I am only 28 and I suffer from GERD, as well as Sleep Apnea. Anyway, like what was said before sleeping on your left side or back is best. On stomach and right side is a no no. Why? you may ask, well, on the stomach is easy to answer, it's building up pressure and causes a what I like to call "GERD attack". Now on the right side is a little tricky to explain. Because of how the body was designed, the sphincter from the esophagus to the stomach is slightly on the right side, so when you sleep on the right it causes the juices to run up to the sphincter and erode on it, causing pain, gas, and the acid to travel to the esophagus, which really sucks in everyone's opinion.

This Web MD article may also help out.

http://www.webmd.com/heartburn-gerd/gui ... -heartburn

Good luck!

I tried the Bed, Bath, and Beyond wedge but it didn't work well for me. I was told to get a 7-10" wedge. My wooden bed frame can't be elevated so I ordered the extraordinarily expensive Mediwedge, which has arrived. My husband hurt his back, but as soon as he recovers, we're going to install the Mediwedge under the mattress. I hope I won't feel like I'm sliding downhill all night...

Remember Babylon 5 and the sleeping arrangements of the Minbari?
--Ok; nerd alert!

SleepingUgly wrote:I tried the Bed, Bath, and Beyond wedge but it didn't work well for me. I was told to get a 7-10" wedge. My wooden bed frame can't be elevated so I ordered the extraordinarily expensive Mediwedge, which has arrived. My husband hurt his back, but as soon as he recovers, we're going to install the Mediwedge under the mattress. I hope I won't feel like I'm sliding downhill all night...

My mom has the old style 4-poster complete with veil if desired. Its an antique with a wooden frame, old when she was a little girl. We just propped the two headboard legs up on a stack of three, 4 foot long x 2 inch thick x 6 inch wide boards. It does not seem to strain the bed much and it takes care of her GERD.

P.S.
The first night you will notice the slight incline but its totally ignorable, unless you sleep on silk.