Apnea?

One disturbing moment during Marie's visit was when she said that she heard me stop breathing during my sleep. When we first got together I had noticed this about her, and mentioned it. Since that time she has lost weight and I've gained it; and so on this visit I never noticed any apnea from her but she noticed it from me.

Wikipedia lists 11 basic risk factors for sleep apnea, including:

• being male
• obesity
• age over 40
• allergies

Yup — all those apply to me. Apparently having a large neck is also a risk factor, but I don't remember where I left my tape measure so I guess we'll skip that one for now.

And alcohol can "promote" sleep apnea as well.

So … now that I know this happens, how do I keep it from happening when there is nobody else sleeping here with me to wake me up? I can't do anything about being male or over 40. I do try to keep my allergies under control. Therefore if I want to reduce the likelihood of apnea, it looks like I have to lose weight and drink less.

There have been times in the past, when I have drunk too much before going to bed, that I have awoken in the middle of the night unable to breathe. I don't mean classic sleep apnea, where I come awake in order to breathe. I mean that I get up out of bed, start to walk around, and still can't breathe. 

It's bloody terrifying. 

When that happens I finally force myself to cough and then the breathing finally starts again. And after that I cut way down on my drinking for a long time, out of fear of it happening again. But a few years later, it happens again.

Maybe I need to cut it all the way out, or at least make sure there is no alcohol in my blood when I finally go to sleep. Also somehow it feels like it should help if I go to bed earlier, before I am really tired.

All of these measures would probably be good for me in other ways too. So why is it that I resist doing things that are good for me? Maybe the fear of not breathing will be enough of a motivation. Or so I hope.