Hiccups are one of life’s little annoyances, but once you learn this little trick, you won’t have to suffer with them for long. (And no, you don’t have to drink a glass of water upside down or have someone scare you to get rid of them!)
What are hiccups and what causes them?
Hiccups are simply involuntary muscle spasms of the diaphragm muscle. They can occur for a number a reasons, including eating too fast and swallowing air, chewing gum, eating or drinking too much, stress or anxiety, or there are more serious causes like nerve damage, brain tumors, and strokes.
While there’s not necessarily an easy fix for those serious causes, when you get hiccups from swallowing air or eating too fast, there is a relatively simple solution– you need to stretch the muscle that’s spasming.
A hiccup fix that actually works.
If you woke up in the middle of the night with a leg cramp or muscle spasms, what would you do?
Stretch it, right?
The same logic applies to hiccups. Your diaphragm muscle needs to be stretched to help stop the spasms.
How to Get Rid of Hiccups:
- To stretch your diaphragm muscle, take a deep breath and hold it for a count of 10.
- Without letting that breath go, take another deep breath and hold it for a count of 10.
- Without letting that breath go, take one more deep breath and hold it for a count of 10. (Or as long as you can at this point– your stomach and lungs should feel VERY full of air.)
- Slowly breathe out and then return to breathing normally.
You’ve just stretched your diaphragm!
By taking all of those deep breaths, you’ll feel your stomach and lungs protrude out, giving that area a nice, deep stretch. I think this is also why drinking lots of water or even being scared can sometimes “work” as a cure for hiccups– because they might also stretch the diaphragm muscle. This method is just a little more direct.
Just one breathing session is usually enough to stop a bout of hiccups, but repeat the above steps if you couldn’t complete them the first time, or if your hiccups return. (Sometimes I’ll have a hiccup during my first round of breathing so I’ll have to start over to get the full stretch in.)
I hope this technique will help you stop hiccups in their tracks the next time they happen to you. Personally, I find them SO ANNOYING, so having this method in my back-pocket is a sanity saver!
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Reader Feedback: Do you have a go-to cure for getting rid of hiccups fast? Feel free to share more ideas in the comments below!
2 things that work. Drink water from kitchen sink head tipped sideways hold nose. Plug ears. Keep drinking till you can’t and hiccups gone. The other is to say the word bananas. And hiccups gone.
I (and I’m sure millions of people) have tried to get hiccups to stop by holding my breath, and sometimes it works -but sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve recently discovered something that works all the time: I don’t “stretch” my diaphragm; I condense it -by bending my midriff as far forward as I possibly can. I only have to hold this position for a few seconds. When I straighten back out, the hiccups are gone. I can’t even believe this works, but it does. I discovered it by accident, but I’m glad I did.
Thanks for sharing!
It worked!!!
Brilliant. Totally worked after an hour of hiccups!
I’m glad to hear it worked for you!
Worked for me when nothing else did. Great tip, thank you.
Thank you so freaking much cause I think you cured my hiccups. I Shall use this method more often.
THANK YOU It WORKED
I worked 😊
It works sorry
Yay! I’m so glad to hear that.
Worked great! I knew about holding your breath, but I didn’t do the three deep breaths technique. Thank you
OMG… thank you so much. I’ve been miserable trying everything possible and this actually worked. I am forever grateful and will keep this with me forever. ❤️
This worked! Thanks!!!
It worked instantly. Thanks!!
I have had the hiccups ALL DAY. I just found your post and this worked! Thank goodness!!
(And while I’m here I may as well mention that your Instant Pot cookbook is one of my top five favorite most used cookbooks. We ate the delicious spicy lentil burgers again just yesterday. Thank you!)
MY CURE FOR HICCUPS WORKS EVERYTIME. JUST LIE DOWN FLAT ON THE FLOOR WITH YOUR ARMS OUTSTRECHED. STAY THERE FOR A MINUTE AND THEY WILL BE GONE.
Ok I had to comment, I never leave comments on these types of articles but I’ve had hiccups consistently for 2 days now and decided to do a bit of research and stumbled on this one… My husband has always sworn by holding your breath being a fix but it has never ever worked for. However….. This one worked. Straight away. I’m fully impressed. Thanks for the tip!
I have had constant hiccups for the past 3 days. I have tried many of these tips with varying success. However the hiccups returned shortly after each attempt. Well… Who would have thought something so simple would bring me relief? I drank a full glass of milk an hour ago and the hiccups have not returned!!! 😋
This is total nonsense, tried it couple of times- never worked for me…
It worked! Thank you so much!!
Omg thank you! This helped at least for now!
I have been struggling with hiccups for three years. As a matter of fact, I’ve had the hiccups all night and all morning. I’m currently taking all kinds of medicine from a GI doctor. I’ve tried everything. Nothing has worked. I just tried this. I did it twice. I held my breathe for 20 seconds between each inhale and then held it for an additional 10 seconds and they stopped right away. I’m so happy, tears came to my eyes because this has really been a struggle for me. I’ve prayed so much and now it’s been answered. God bless you and thank you so much. Tony
Worked from the first time, thank you dear!
Thanks Meg
This worked for me! I was panicked because I just had ear surgery and the hiccups were hurting my ears. I needed a quick solution and Google took me here. This worked. What a relief!
Worked for me
Hiccups make me actually angry. Like you, I believe they are VERY ANNOYING indeed. Thank you for this. You just ended several hours worth of hiccuping.
I can’t thank you enough. The stretching worked!!!
I tried, and it worked! In the past a spoon of peanut butter has worked too.
I can confirm this actually works. It’s not just the diaphragm that needs stretching though. It’s a lot of various torso muscles.
The really stubborn hiccups won’t go away with just 30 seconds of diaphragm stretches. You have to pay attention to which muscles are having spasms and stretch those for roughly 20 seconds at a time, and you will probably have to do this for many tries. These muscles range from the very bottom of your abdomen to the top of your throat, and the spasm will move around from muscle to muscle for awhile. It can be frustrating but will eventually work.
It’s a lot of holding your breath and arching your back and throat. But it works every time; you’ll notice the rate of hiccuping slows as you stretch.
work well for me!
Thank you Megan. Jus tried it It worked the 1st try,your a godsend. Thank so much
GENIUS! I have been trying to find a way to get rid of my hiccups for the past 5 minutes until I ran into this, and when I tried it…mind blowing! Really great, thank you so much for helping me get rid of THESE ANNOYING HICCUPS! 😊
This stopped my hiccups immediately! Awesome. Thank you.
Thank you so much for this it worked!!
I can’t believe this worked.. It bought a smile on my face as soon as I realized it worked.. Thank you so much.. Can’t express my happiness. Now I know what to advise to people tired of not being able to stop hiccups.
This is pure magic. I had a hiccup. 2 cups of water and the annoying little thing would not subside. The breathing exercise took it away almost instantly. Thank you
this worked really well. i had the hiccups and searched up how to get rid of them. thank you and Godbless
This worked for me, although I had to repeat the exercise around 4/5 times to get it to work. Standing didn’t work for me but sitting up nice and straight on the edge of my bed and concentrating on stretching the diaphragm and eventually releasing the breath nice and slowly eventually did the trick!
Many thanks… good luck fellow hiccup sufferers.
It worked!
Thank you!
Worked very well , had to do it a few times to get the breathes right but once I did , they where gone thank you very much.
Awesome – after trying everything – half teaspoon of sugar, drinking water, holding breathe etc until after 1 am my husbands hiccups stopped with this breathing technique! Thank you so very much!
This has never not worked for me and my friends:
1. take a deep breath and hold it as long as you can. If you hiccup during this – no problem
2. when you can’t hold your breath any more let it out slowly.
3. once your breath is out – force it out a little more.
4. Breath in slowly and deeply – concentrating on not hiccuping.
5. Let you breath out slowly, and deeply, and keep breathing slowly and deeply for a minute or so
All gone
Max Anderson
New Zealand
I tried everything else and nothing worked This is the only trick that I have ever tried that really works!
OMG Thank You So Much! I’ve had the hiccups for the last 3 hours and tried everything to make them go away. Tried this first time, worked immediately!! Now I can finally go to sleep 😂
Did absolutely nothing for me
This worked immediately!!! Thank you so much!
It works!! I’ve been having a hiccup for 3days now. After trying out what the article says, it went instantly. Lol, and I’ve been drinking water for days now trying to get rid of it. Glad I learnt this for the future though
Brilliant thanks
worked! thanks
My dad was having a bad cause of hiccups for over a week ,nothing worked to solve it except this trick here. How can we support the website?.
Thank you very much. It worked perfectly. I will not suffer again from hiccups