Why Am I Farting In My Sleep?
If you’ve ever experienced this phenomenon, then you probably know why it can be such a problem. Yes, passing gas in your sleep can certainly be an issue – especially if your sleeping partner starts to complain about it!
It’s embarrassing, unpleasant, and certainly not something that’s fun to talk about.
But it also happens.
And if it’s happening to you, then you are probably looking for some real answers that will help you to overcome it. If so, then we’ve got you covered – because here, we’ve assembled some helpful tips/tricks that you can use to beat nighttime farting, and move on to a more restful (and better smelling!) night’s sleep for both you and your partner.
Why does it happen?
So why is farting while sleeping a thing?
Information! As it turns out, this is a pretty simple question to answer. When you sleep, most of the muscles in your body relax – and this includes muscles that might help to keep gas trapped in the body – even subconsciously.
The gas that we pass when we ‘break wind’ is actually a combination of the gasses that we swallow when we eat, combined with the gasses produced during the digestive process. These gasses cannot stay in the body, however, so they are either expelled through our mouth or through our digestive system.
A lot of people try to hold their farts in during the day, because it can be difficult to find ‘socially acceptable’ times to expel it. It is often embarrassing to pass gas in front of people… but believe it or not, allowing this gas to remain in the body like this can greatly increase your odds of experiencing sleep-time gassiness.
Most humans need to fart anywhere from 10 to 25 times per day. Also, a lot of people believe that diet plays a big role in how ‘bad’ gas smells… but this might not necessarily be true. While diet can play a role in how gas smells, there is really no avoiding the stinkiness that comes from gas that is expelled this way. Gas that is passed through the rear will often contain hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide… and when these are all mixed together, they are certainly going to create a smell that most people would describe as ‘unfavorable.’
So what can you do to help solve the problem?
Ok, so we’ve talked about what causes nighttime farting – but what can you actually do to avoid it?
Here are some tips that might help. These might not solve all of your sleepy-time stink-ups – but they will at least decrease the odds that such occurrences will happen.
1… Pass as much gas as possible during the day
Allowing gas to build up inside of you is just going to make you feel bad and increase the odds of it coming out sometime later – especially while you sleep. The best and most obvious way to deal with this problem is to allow your body to pass gas whenever you feel the need… but finding a number of convenient times per day to do it will really help you to cut down on nighttime farting.
2… Take an over the counter pill to stop the gas
There are several over the counter pills that can help to combat gassiness. Beano is one example of such a medicine.
3… Watch what you eat and drink before you go to bed
Eating right before you go to bed can drastically increase the odds that you will experience nighttime farting. Drinking carbonated beverages can also increase the risk. For best results, cut off your eating and snacking 4 hours before you go to bed, and stick to lemon water instead of carbonated beverages during this time.
Increasing your water intake during the day can also help you to avoid nighttime farting, as this can help your digestive process and eliminate some of the less favorable bacteria from your system. Drinking 8 glasses of water per day could really help you to curb your incidence of nighttime gas passing, and help both you and your partner to sleep better.
Joshua Sigafus is just a writer trying to make the world a better place. He writes extensively about positive living, health, wellness, success, and happiness, and you can check out his daily blog at www.livinginspringfield.net for daily positive vibes and blog posts.