I have been having problems with sleeping, feeling of not breathing. I have noticed this for some time and read up on some items, mainly "sleep apnea." I have tried to understand this and possibly believe this may be my problem, any assistance would be appreciated.

Normally on a day-to-day basis I have approx 4-7 beers a night, why one would ask? Well, I have noticed over time that I sleep a whole lot better with it, not to the point of passing out or a "black-out" but enough to make me sleep though the entire night until the alarm goes off at 4am (I normally go to sleep or fall asleep around 11pn-12am / weekend, including fridays even later.) On the day's I do not have any beer or just have a minimal (to my standards, up to 3) I notice I have a problem waking up when I attempt to go to sleep and having the feeling of not being able to breathe. In fact this happened last night (06/24/08.) I think I woke up about 4 or 5 times then the next thing I knew it was 4am.

On the way to work (about 30 miles) I am kind of grogy in the moring, but with some coffee good to go, however, in the afternoon on the way home I feel a sensation of wanting to just sleep. Today, no exception, I noticed that I felt like I was in a dream or just a strange feeling, still unknown and this has happened more than once. I catch myself feeling this way and think "#($% I'm driving what in the hell are you (me) doing?" When I get home, I crash for about 30-45 mins and then good to go for the rest of the night.

I have not seen a dr about this, was hoping someone out there can point me in the right direction. All the info on Sleep Apnea doesn't say much about the beer, only that it's not good for you, however I believe in my situation it works the best, unfortuneatly.

Thanks for reading and hope to see what some of you think - Probably just need to suck it up or suck it up and see the dr.

PS: this is one of those 8 beer nights....

Rick
AZ