The older I get, the more difficult I find it is to stay awake at certain times. I can’t even drive at night anymore. I would fall asleep at the wheel if I drove too late, I fall asleep at church (shhh!), I fall asleep at the computer, etc. Maybe as I get older my body just is slowing down. Or maybe it’s having five kids. Who knows?
So the other night, I poured myself a glass of beer in the evening. It was later, probably 10pm. The beer was actually a beer I wouldn’t normally buy, but I purchased it for $5.99 for a sixer at my local beer store: Sierra Nevada’s Anniversary Ale. The stuff isn’t bad, it’s just boring. Even at the great price I wouldn’t buy it again.
Anyway, even a lower ranking beer is delicious. I took a few sips. Very nice. I settled back onto the couch turned the television on to Mythbusters (shut up). The next thing I know, I’m waking up with a bit of sore neck and it’s 4am. I look over, and there is the beer, sitting on the coffee table with only a sip missing. If a glass of beer had eyes, this one would have been staring at me with sorrowful puppy dog eyes, begging for my attention. And I could not give it any. Besides the fact that the brew was now flat, I just can’t wake up at four in the morning and down 11 ounces of beer. Maybe you can, but not me.
As I walked up to bed, I was so irritated with myself for falling asleep before I could finish that beer. It’s all I could think about. What a waste!
The sad thing is, is that this is a fairly common experience for me; maybe occurring once every couple of months. Unfortunately, the beer is sometimes a very good beer that should not be wasted. One time I remember waking up in the early morning in a sitting position with a full glass of Bell’s North Coast Old Ale, and exceptional and pricey beer. All the next day the thought of that wasted brew bugged me like a splinter under my flesh. I kept thinking of not only the wasted money, but how good it would have tasted.
This will happen again. I wish it wouldn’t, but it will. Even when I feel wide awake I’ll suddenly drift off. There’s not much I can do to prevent it, besides avoiding hoppy beers at night (hops are a sedative), and that’s not going to happen.
Does this ever happen to you?
Does it bug you as badly as it bugs me when it does happen?
I have made it a point to start my beers before a certain time or else I don’t have one. I refuse to fall asleep before I finish a beer, but I also hate being kept up because of by stubbornness.
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I have had this happen a few times before but most of the time it is with a not so great beer.
Although a couple weeks ago after I worked that beer festival I came home to my brother and his wife having some friends over. So I pull out a Hopslam and poured it into a glass. As we sat there and watched Top Gear on DVD I started getting sleepy, even dozing off a couple times. So I took the glass in my hand and just forced myself to finish in a couple minutes then headed up to bed. I wasn’t going to let that beer fall victim.
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@nate…it happenned to me in the midafternoon on Easter. I guess I just have no willpower to sleep.
@Mike…you’re a trooper takin’ one for the team. Yeah, I’d probably drink a flat hopslam in the middle of the night for principle.
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Never happened to me. I fear wasting beer. That, and I’m so obsessive about beer, it just doesn’t happen.
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@BigTex…I don’t know what comes over me…It’s like someone turns out the lights. My folks have a picture of me as a kid in which I fell asleep as I was climbing out of the car. The beer was still in the bottle. Just kidding about that last part.
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This actually happen to me a few weeks ago, two nights in a row. Issue is, it was BA Speedway stout. So I couldn’t let it go to waste, I had to drink it at like 2am and 3am.
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Considering I fall asleep like blinking, I’m surprised this has never happened to me, but I’m glad it hasn’t.
Yet…
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I guess I can mark this down as one of the (few) reasons why I like not being able to fall asleep easily. It may have happened to me before, but I cannot remember when. Usually if I feel tired, I won’t touch a good beer. senses dull and I wouldn’t get the effect I desire. (Then again, with an Anniversary Ale, I might use it as a sleeping aid)
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Doe sound like a nightmare… I have the opposite problem, I can’t fall asleep and I can’t stay sleep. Although If I drink beer to early in the day, I’ll fall asleep in the afternoon. Like at the Captain Lawrence release 2 weeks ago, we had a couple of samples in the AM, by the afternoon I was sleeping like a baby. Weird, eh?
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@Dave…good call on not wasting the speedway stout. I think I too would have forced my self to drink the rest, no matter how groggy I was too.
@David…good to see you again! Sounds like me, falling asleep blinking. I hate sleeping, which is weird too.
@Jason I hear ya, my problem is that I won’t feel the slightest bit tired, and then it hits me unaware like a tsunami. it is rare, but it still happens.
@Peter I verr rarely suffer from insomnia. The same thing happens to me if I drink in the afternoon. I almost never drink before 7pm. Even half a beer at lunch knocks me out.
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Old man Nate. I think I’ve almost fallen asleep but can’t remember if I’ve ever not been able to finish the beer. Personally, I’d get up as taste the brew, see what it’s about, and pour it if I really have to.
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Is having a beer in your sleep a problem? I’ve learned to deal with it. I figure as long as it isn’t a bottle of peroxide or something I’m good.
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@MIke….I have woken up before…but the margin between falling asleep and waking up was probably only an hour. I’m talking about suddenly waking up and it’s been hours. But yeah, I am getting old. Plus I hate waking up an having to pee. Andrew Williams used to drink all night, and then make beer pancackes. Now that’s commitment.
@scott funny! I almost started a website called “thank heaven for peroxide.”
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many many times… all I hope for is that I’ve set the beer down (and dont wake up with wet, beer-scented pants / sofa / chair). I usually just put the beer in the fridge and use it for cooking (though with certain beer styles, it can be a bit of a challenge to cook w/). Woke up the other morning and there was still a bit of a head left on the beer that I’d put in the fridge. Tried to drink it – still way too flat.
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I recommend switching to shooters of hard liquor, Nate. This way you pour, you pound, and you’re done!
I’ve only fallen asleep on a couple of beers, and they had it coming. I think they lulled me into dreamland with their below average flavor.
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Nate, I too fell asleep on the couch last night and woke up at 2:00am. However I am 2 hours behind you so we actually woke up at the same time! However I typically fall asleep after drinking the beer nor before it is gone. I would have pounded it and gone to bed…Waste not want not.
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