Later bedtime after meal eases acidity

A shorter dinner-to-bed interval is significantly associated with an increased risk of gastro-esophageal reflux disease, or GERD. It is generally recommended that patients with GERD refrain from eating within three hours of going to sleep. To investigate, the researchers from the Osaka City University, Japan, used a questionnaire to assess the time between finishing dinner and going to bed among 147 GERD patients and 294 matched controls without GERD symptoms during the previous year. A significant association was seen between shorter dinner-to-bed time and an increased risk of GERD. Participants who went to bed within three hours after eating were 7.45 times more likely to suffer from heartburn as those whose dinner-to-bed time was four hours or longer. Based on the above findings, the next step will be to see if going to bed more than three hours after eating can reduce or improve symptoms in people who have GERD.