I'm sitting at my desk at 1:16 a.m., waiting for my throat to feel reasonably normal again and for antacid to do its work following a 
rare - in recent history, anyway - episode of acid reflux.
I woke up about a half-hour ago coughing to clear my windpipe of vomit after I started to barf in my sleep.
This happened to me several months ago and my doctor corrected the problem by putting me on a nightly dose of Nexium.
Interestingly enough, the same thing happened to my wife a couple of nights ago.
What happens is that the esophageal sphincter that normally makes the esophagus a one-way conduit, relaxes and lets stomach contents, including some startlingly corrosive acid, travel back up to the mouth.
If you happen to be sleeping or otherwise unconscious, there is a high probability you could inhale some of this stuff. Aspirate enough of it and you'll die.
That's what happened to my former brother-in-law Bob Teerman a few years ago. Bob was a brittle diabetic, had a seizure and barfed in his sleep, aspirated a bunch of it and died. I think he was around 53 at the time.
So when my wife and I have the same seemingly isolated experience within a couple of days, it's natural to start looking for some commonality. And in this case, the spotlight of suspicion falls upon a particularly rich pumpkin cheesecake she made over the weekend.
It's insanely rich and on both reflux occasions, we each had a piece of it within a couple of hours of going to bed.
OK, no more evening cheesecake and no food within three hours of bedtime.
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