Posted 4/28/2015 12:07 PM (GMT 0)
You can take it whenever you want to, it isn't going to cause any harm. But the reason for taking it 30 mins before a meal is that the medication works best that way. Once its in your bloodstream, your stomach needs to try and produce acid in order for the medicine to reach the proton pumps and block them. Without the acid production the drugs will just stay in the blood stream and not really block the pumps. Dont take it longer than 60 mins before a meal or it wont be that effective (in my experience).
Saying all that, if you have tried it just before bed and it works, then do it that way. Whatever eases your symptoms best is what you should do.
If you are having morning reflux, you could try taking a zantac just before bed, this can be taken on top of your PPI. Or you can try sleeping on a wedge.
You may want to consider eating earlier so that your dinner has left your stomach by the time you go to bed.
Also you speak of anxiety, this in itself can cause the heartburn pain to get worse too. You should try learning some techniques to deal with it, I find autogenic training to be very helpful, it also eases my pain as well as calms me down when I'm stressed.