I'm curious how people are dealing with aspirating reflux while sleeping. I try to avoid eating late, sleep slightly elevated, and have been taking Reglan after meals but every now and then (last night as of late) I aspirate my reflux and it has to be the worst, most frightening experience of my life. After the panic, and I start to slowly calm down and take little breaths to breathe, the burning that remains is almost intolerable and I'm afraid to go back to sleep afterwards. Any suggestions?

I feel for you, Mike. I'm prone to laryngeal spasms, and coming out of a deep sleep into these types of breathing issues can be terrifying in a very primal way. I try not to eat after 5, and take famotidine before bed, however Kennedy's seems to be a very individual disease, and everyone has to work through what actions are effective for them.

Bob cannot sleep on his back or this will happen. If he does go to his back, I can usually wake him before he gets the attack. Of course, if I am in a deep sleep I won't hear it coming. So scary to see and hear and be helpless to assist.

Constantly being jerked awake during the night; extremely dry throat that interrupts my breathing. I sleep slightly elevated at night it helps quite bit. Being using a snoring spray aid that coats the throat to deal with the dryness. Never had this problem before KD.

Yes, this is a problem ... and frustration. I am a back sleeper, so I have to keep myself elevated (12 inch foam wedge). It has really helped. Also, and what others have mentioned, I do not eat after dinner and keep a glass of water next to the bed each night to help clear the dry sensation in the throat. If my saliva is extra thick, I take a Muscinex tablet a couple of hours before bedtime and that seems to help.

Elevation helped me for years. Had a steady diet of ant-acid tablets a night. I haven't had a serious GERD attack for quite a while.

Doc finally convinced me to try omeprazole (Prilosec) and it worked great for me. Omeprazole is OTC and good deals can be found at CostCo.

BTW both are packaged in those awful single pill packaging. I can't get the pills out of the Prilosec packaging w/o a knife.

Well, Bob was not taking his Omeprazole at night so he is trying it at night now. Between the mucinex and the Omeprazole both at night, things are 95% better! Thanks for the tip.