I have had acid reflux for 13 years. I was on Prilosec for 3 of those years but I did not want to be on meds for the rest of my life so I stopped. I don't know what kind of meds you are on but all meds have side effects. I found out that proton pump inhibitors (which is what Prilosec, Nexium, etc are) cause stomach polyps and yes, I now have them and there are too many to remove. My gastroenterologist says the polyps are benign and I hope he is right.

I have also since realized that the whole concept of proton pump inhibitors does not make any sense. They lessen the amount of acid produced but I feel that is doing more harm than good. My body does not have too much acid, the acid is just leaking up. My body needs the acid to digest my food so I can get the nutrients. So instead of reducing the much needed acid, I have altered my lifestyle. I learned that oily foods and proteins take longer to digest than carbohydrates so I watch what I eat especially at dinner time and I try to eat a smaller dinner also. I also heard it takes about 3-4 hours to get food out of one's stomach (of course that also depends on how much one eats) so I try to limit my food and liquid intake after 6pm. (I sleep at 11pm) If you can sleep easily with your torso elevated that probably is the safest way to go. For many years I could not tolerate sleeping elevated so I kept sleeping horizontally. But 3 years ago I found out my condition had become pre-cancerous so now I force myself to sleep with my torso elevated (I sleep on a wedge). I have tweaked it a bit though--I start the night that way but after a few hours, when hopefully my stomach has emptied more, I will go back to sleeping horizontal. So far so good. I also read that because of the way the stomach is configured, sleeping horizontally but on one's left side can be okay, so I have incorporated that into my regime. It took a lot of trial and error for me to get to this point. Of course your condition and situation might be different from mine. I hope you can find a way that will work for you. Just make sure you get monitored by your doctor. Good luck now!