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?