Bloating

Struggling with bloating? Here’s what you need to know to find relief.

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What is bloating?

When you’re bloated, your stomach or abdomen can feel full and uncomfortable, or even painful.

This bloating happens when your gastrointestinal tract contains too much gas or air. Bloating can be mild, or more severe, and may present as:

– A visibly distended or swollen abdomen

– Feeling very full and uncomfortable

– Feeling of tightness in the abdomen

– Excess gas – belching and/or flatulence

– Rumbling or gurgling

There are several causes of bloating, so it’s important to diagnose the cause of your bloating and find out why it’s happening to you.

Why does bloating happen?

Prolonged periods of bloating could indicate an underlying health problem, if so you should see your GP.

Possible causes can include:

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS diagnosis)
Ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), where the inner lining of the large bowel is inflamed and develops ulcers
Crohn’s disease, the other form of IBD, where some parts of your colon are inflamed
Too much bacteria in your small intestine (called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO)
Gastroesophageal reflux disease
Food intolerances, especially lactose or fructose intolerance
Producing too much gas (dysbiosis and fermentation)
Weight gain
Stress or anxiety
Delays in your food and drink moving on from your stomach (called gastroparesis)
Eating too quickly, so that you swallow too much air (called aerophagia)

Diagnosing bloating

Feeling bloated is no fun, but once you know what’s going on you can start to manage your symptoms and the underlying causes.

Testing options:

At the Functional Gut Clinic, we can run the following tests to diagnose the causes of bloating:

Gastric emptying test– which measures how quickly food leaves your stomach

Carbohydrate malabsorption breath test– which finds out if you have certain food intolerances (lactose or fructose)

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) breath test– which finds out if you have an overgrowth of bacteria in your small intestine (called SIBO)

Oesophageal manometry– which measures the function of your oesophagus (food pipe)

24-hour pH impedance monitoring– which looks at whether you have any reflux

Colonic transit study-a non-invasive test which looks at how long it takes for faeces to pass through your bowl

Find out more and book your test

Learn more about bloating

A woman with shoulder-length dark hair is sitting up in bed, wearing a white T-shirt. She looks distressed, holding her chest with both hands, and has a pained expression on her face. The room is well-lit with natural light coming from a window with gray curtains. The bed has white sheets, and there is a modern, minimalist wall decoration above the headboard.

Sleep struggles? How to help night-time reflux

Education| Reflux

April 08, 2025•4 min read

Lots of people find that their reflux is particularly bad during the night, which makes sense because when we are lying down, gravity isn’t there to help the acid from our stomach stay in our stomach. Leading to all sorts of burdensome symptoms like burning, chest pain, acid taste and cough.

There are lots of little techniques you can use to try and reduce the amount of reflux you get at night. Not all of these will work for everyone, and you may have already tried and tested these methods yourself. But with that here are our top tips for reducing night-time reflux which don’t include medications:

1. Chewing gum – some research has shown that chewing sugar-free gum could reduce reflux due to the chewing action causing increased swallowing, promoting acid clearance in the oesophagus. The action of chewing gum can also stimulate gastric juice secretion, boosting digestion of food contents, and reducing stomach contents which may otherwise increase reflux risk.

2. Sleeping on your left-hand side – due to the anatomy of the stomach and the way the opening sits, lying on your left-hand side can ensure the opening of the stomach is upright, allowing gravity to help keep stomach contents down and avoid anything refluxing up.

3. Wait 3-4hrs after eating before going to bed – having lots in your stomach increases abdominal pressure and the likelihood of reflux. Leaving a sufficient amount of time for digestion to occur and stomach contents to empty means there is less available in the stomach to reflux up. Additionally, less acid for digestion will be being produced and so, less acid available to cause reflux.

4. Avoid trigger foods – if you have known trigger foods such as spicy foods and fatty foods, then it is particularly important that you avoid these at night as you do not have the advantages of being upright and going about normal daily activities, such as a light stroll, to help prevent reflux from happening.

5. Have a light dinner – eating a large meal, or even just a meal that is full of spice or fatty foods, can increase the risk of reflux at night. Try having a smaller meal to prevent the pressure in your stomach to increase due to the larger volume in it. Additionally, try to avoid meals high in fat, as this can delay digestion, causing food to remain in your stomach for a longer amount of time, increasing the likelihood of food and acid moving up into your oesophagus.

6. Limit liquids before bed – consuming a lot of liquids, just like eating a large meal, can increase the pressure in your stomach and increase the risk of contents moving up into the oesophagus and causing reflux. Aim to consume enough during the day to avoid downing pints of water in the evening

7. An extra pillow – further helping gravity do it’s thing, sleeping with your head upright allows any reflux at night to stay down.

8. Avoid alcohol in the evening – alcohol is a common culprit for many people when it comes to reflux. This makes sense as some research has shown that alcohol may cause the ring of muscle at the top of our stomach stopping stomach contents refluxing up to relax.

9. Avoid strenuous exercising before going to bed – high intensity and strenuous exercise can may increase the risk of reflux because, as with eating a large meal, these types of workouts can increase abdominal pressure which helps push things out of the stomach and into the oesophagus.

10. Practice relaxation techniques before bed – research has shown that practicing relaxation techniques such as diaphragmatic breathing may help reduce reflux and it’s symptoms which could be particularly beneficial if you suffer from night-time reflux as it not only helps with reflux but gets you relaxed and ready for bed, hopefully improving your overall sleep.

The bottom line...

There are plenty of techniques you can apply to your evening routine in order to help prevent that unpleasant night-time reflux from happening, which don’t include medications.

If you have given these a try, and you still find your reflux ruining your night and sleep, then please seek further medical advice from your consultant. They could help you look for further treatment plans and potentially refer you for further diagnostic testing to assess your reflux and its causes.

References

The effect of chewing sugar-free gum on gastro-esophageal reflux - PubMed

Walking and chewing reduce postprandial acid reflux - PubMed

The effect of sleep positional therapy on nocturnal gastroesophageal reflux measured by esophageal pH-impedance monitoring - PubMed

Lifestyle Intervention in Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease - PubMed

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD): Highlighting Diagnosis, Treatment, and Lifestyle Changes - PMC

The role of lifestyle changes in gastroesophageal reflux diseases treatment - PubMed

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