Experience Healing Sleep With Inclined Bed Therapy

In response to Saba from who wrote:

Question: About INCLINE BED THERAPY isn’t it the same thing as what sleeping on pillows does? Will I have the same effect if I sleep on a firm pillow that is 6inches higher rather than having to raise my bed? Thank you if anyone has any answer

Saba, using a firm pillow will only bend your neck and raise your head. The rest of the body remains prone/flat. Inclining your entire bed by raising it at the head makes the entire body inclined. The feet are lower than the heart, the stomach is lower than the throat, etc. This is what gives you all the benefits being discussed here. I have been sleeping on an inclined bed since 6 months now, and my heart burn / acid reflux is gone! I was prescribed this by a gasteroenterologist as against acidity regulating tabs/syrups.

I have acid reflux only at night. I wake up with a sore throat in the morning. I put bricks under my bed making the head of the bed higher than the foot. (Actually I used one brick and one piece of plywood cut the shape of the brick. However the floor sloped from the foot of the bed down to the head. Thus the net effect was one brick. It was the sloped floor that gave me this idea.) My acid reflux went away. I no longer woke up with a sore throat. This worked for over five years. Then I slept without the bricks for a week. My acid reflux came back. I replaced the bricks. However, my acid reflux had grown worse. I now need two bricks, instead of one.

This might work only for mild cases. I tried it right away as soon as I got acid reflux.

Sleeping position might matter as to whether this cure works. I sleep on my back. I did not adopt sleeping on my back because of the acid reflux. I had slept that way most of my life.

Does anyone know whether some sleeping positions are better than others for acid reflux, i.e. back, left side, or right side? Which way does the connection between the stomach and the esophagus point? Is it the same for all people, or does it vary?

Replied by Jeannie
(Us)
05/25/2015

Replied by Robert
(San Antonio , Texas)
12/23/2016

Lifted head end of bed about three inches. Helps, doesn’t cure, night time acid reflux.

Replied by Maggie
(Australia)
06/05/2016

Replied by Mmsg
(Somewhere, Europe)
06/06/2016

Elevating the head of the bed 2″ (use 2 pieces scrap 2″x6′ board to elevate head of bed) cures acid reflux when you awaken in the morning. Doesn’t work all day but its good for a nice part of the morning when you first wake up.

I’ve tried raising the head of my bed six inches, because of acid reflux.

Had a bad dream, I dreamed that I was on a shear mountain rock wall inching my way along a narrow ledge.

What did work, was laying on my right-side, this seemed to remove the pressure of the stomach contents coming back up the throat.

Now, I just go to bed with an empty stomach and sleep on either side.

I’ve tried raising the foot of my bed six inches, to try and reduce the foot swelling.

It didn’t work for me, what did work, was placing an extra comforter folded up into a large garbage bag.

I placed that under my calves for about an hour.

My feet didn’t look normal, but, the swelling had gone down noticeably, I was able to tie my shoe laces without my feet hurting.

Thank you all for discussing and testing my theory on Inclined Bed Therapy.

Kind regards,

Andrew K Fletcher

https://inclinedbedtherapy.com

I have been sleeping inclined for about a year now. I experience tightness and pain of my upper back and neck muscles. This has persisted despite the multitude of ways I’ve tried adding pillows to support different parts of my body. All I can think is that my upper back and neck are trying to keep me from sliding down the bed and are tensing up??? This is despite the fact that I put a pillow under my hips for that purpose.

Any help and suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated, because I’d like to continue sleeping this way.

Thank you.

Replied by Mmsg
(Somewhere, Europe)
10/04/2018

I’ve been sleeping on an incline for over 10 years and love it. I doubt I could sleep flat, even if I wanted to. But I just discovered something AWESOME about my inclined bed. It helped but I actually cured my indigestion, acid reflux and hiatal hernia with water- I haven’t had any of the acid symptoms since I drank two glasses of water, the very first day I heard about it. That said…

I used to go to the chiropractor 2 or 3 times per year for neck problems and such but I saw an inversion table on tv and they talked about neck problems but ONE woman said that it cured her carpal tunnel – which I also had – so I got an inversion table and, sure enough, no more carpal tunnel AND no more visits to the chiropractor. They immediately bleeped out the woman’s comments about carpal tunnel but I had already heard it so…but that’s not the AWESOME part!

The AWESOME part is that with an inversion table, you don’t have to go completely upside down to get the benefits. And because it is so big and awkward to set up and take down, I’d been procrastinating with regard to actually doing it but one day I was particularly sore and trying to figure out something I could do to relieve the soreness enough to actually wrestle the inversion table up and usable and I looked at my “inclined bed” and thought that since I don’t actually have to go all the way upside down, I wondered…if I laid on it the wrong way around…would that provide some traction? And it DID!! And it was AWESOME!!

I laid with my head at the foot of the bed, rolled up in a sit up to sort of stretch out my spine. Then I put my arms straight over my head for a few seconds and stretched, then twisted my torso one way and stretched, then the other way and stretch and then I pull my knees up to my chest for just a few seconds, got up and felt like a new woman! It wa shocking!! I couldn’t believe it!

So, now, after a day hunched over the keyboard, I lay the wrong way on my inclined bed and stretch. It’s like a whole new life – a whole extra half a day of feeling good and sleeping good and just overall awesomeness!

Replied by Maria Cuevas
(Florida)
09/10/2016

Good Morning from Ireland. Last february(2012) I found that my left Calf muscle was starting to look roaring red and purple and I won’t mention the pain and itchiness. I had heard years ago about elevating your feet in order to aid the return of blood to the torso. I googled this to make sure that it was what I needed and I came across your site and read and re-read the IBT to make sure I had it right so I said i’d give it a try and said i’d log my progress and gave it a trial of a calender month.

The first couple of nights I didn’t sleep all that well as my body wasn’t used to the position BUT during those couple of days I wasn’t tired and had noticed that my calf condition was improved. But by week three I abandoned the trial and decided that the IBT was the way forward for me. It has given me Comfort for my calves and a brilliant nights sleep. So i’d just like to say thank you for your information and wish everyone would give this a try. Martin

when I would get swollen ankles, I would elevate my feet in an “L” against the wall. It helped. but now that my bed is 2 inches higher at the head, I find I get up with non-swollen ankles even without elevation.

Replied by jerry
(usa)
10/14/2023

Incline bed… I raised the foot of my bed by putting shoe boxes between the mattress and boxspring. Foot swelling went away. Didn’t want to lower the head by putting risers under bottom legs because it may have caused reflux.

We love the ibt, have been with it for probably 8 years!

We started because of swollen feet in pregnancy so for the swelling it is amazing but for the varicose veins I can’t really say!!! Would love to hear if u have more home remedies for them.

EC: Hi Beth, Here’s our page on Varicose Veins.

I have been using Inclined Bed Therapy for 7 months, 5”. Prime reason for insomnia. I believe it helps to keep me asleep, but I wake up in the early hours, 3-4 am with my feet and lower legs off the mattress and I need to climb back to the top. Does anyone else have this issue? Any suggestions how to stay in the bed? My sheets are eucalyptus, not silky, the mattress is multilayer foam Nectar Premier. Platform bed, no boxspring. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Replied by mmsg
(somewhere, europe)
11/07/2021

I started IBT about a year ago after being diagnosed with MS and searching the web for “natural” ways to manage it I came across Andrews video and the written info. I had nothing to lose by trying it and, now, I gained everything! I have not had to be treated (medication wise) for the MS, I was also at the door step of having to have back surgery, which I did not want and kept putting it off. Now, I don’t need an excuse to put off surgery as I have no more back issues.

This is the by far the best remedy for so much I have ever came across and, it’s free! I don’t have to have surgery and as of date I don’t for see myself having the need for MS medication/therapy.

I can’t ever see myself sleeping flat again…One thing thou that is really hard is sex. We were never “schedulers” and now when the bed is not raised it’s fun time. Yet, those times when one wakes and the mood is there the incline becomes a challenge. Sometimes to the point where we end up on the floor. If anyone is as bold as me and can give suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.

All in all, our health; body, energy, sleep and dreams have been renewed.

Replied by Kelly
(The Netherlands)
02/24/2023

I’ve slept on an inclined bed for years. Love it, hate it when I have to sleep flat when visiting others. I think it’s the fresh air feel in my lungs I can most pinpoint. I also don’t get up often throughout the night as previously. I’ve shared the therapy with friends. One elderly friend suffered from dreadful chillblains in her feet every winter leading to gangrene. She has improved vastly and the condition returned when she moved and didn’t have her raised bed for some time. Another elderly neighbour woke with swollen, painful ankles one morning so I popped her up 3 inches and the pain started to subside BUT the interesting unlooked for benefit was her morning giddiness on rising. I’ve now put my 101 year old neighbour up 3 inches. She is ready for me to take her up to 6 as, while her ankles are still swollen, she is sleeping better and not pacing the floor at night with restless legs. I only suffered achey back for a day or two when I first adopted the method. I have a foot rest at the end of my bed and I’m tall and my feet can touch it though I don’t press against it – haven’t needed to. My doctor friends (obgyn and cardiologist) adopted IBT and put me on to it. I do it for health.