Get tested for sleep apnea by a good clinic. You spend a night in a "sleep lab" hooked up to an eeg and they watch your sleep habits on a video monitor. They found I stopped breathing literally dozens of times over the course of the night. You don't want to let this go because the problem can cause more serious issues such as stroke and heart disease. I now use a CPAP breathing device to stop the problem. Here's specific information from a study re: alcohol consumption and men: Alcohol increases sleep apnea and oxygen desaturation in asymptomatic men. * Taasan VC, * Block AJ, * Boysen PG, * Wynne JW. Using standard sleep techniques, we performed a placebo-controlled and randomized study to assess the effect of alcohol ingestion (2 ml/kg of body weight) on breathing and oxygen saturation during sleep. Twenty asymptomatic men volunteered for the two-night study: 11 were given a placebo on night 1, and alcohol on night 2 (group A); nine were given alcohol on night 1 and a placebo on night 2 (group B). We compared the incidence of sleep events (apnea, hypopnea and arterial oxygen disaturation) during the nights the subjects received alcohol and during the nights they received the placebo. Alcohol was associated with significant increases in the occurrence of the following: the number of sleep events (207 to 383,p less than 0.01), the events of arterial oxygen disaturation (118 to 226, p less than 0.01) and the number of apneic events (20 to 110, p less than 0.01). Alcohol had no significant effects on the number of times hypopnea occurred. Values obtained during sleep on the control night after alcohol ingestion also showed that the episodes of arterial oxygen desaturation remained statistically increased over control values before the ingestion of any alcohol (p = 0.01). These results show that in asymptomatic men alcohol ingestion increases the incidence of arterial oxygen desaturation and disordered breathing during sleep and that the increase in arterial oxygen desaturation persists for an additional night, even when no alcohol is consumed. PMID: 7258218 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] ADDED NOTE................................................................ What are you nuts taking an over-the-counter med when you are already experiencing difficulty? Meds are meds. You need a doctor. Stop diagnosing yourself and prescribing your own meds. If you don't believe me, here are some of the side effects from Gravol. Gravol: The ABCs Gravol® is a trade name for the nonprescription drug dimenhydrinate. Gravol and similar medications are used to prevent and treat nausea and vomiting. Some people abuse these drugs because large doses can produce a "high" and hallucinations. They are inexpensive and easy to obtain. To prevent the abuse of these drugs, Alberta pharmacists keep them behind the counter. Short-Term Effects * At recommended doses, Gravol can cause drowsiness, dizziness and blurred vision. It can impair your concentration and motor coordination. For these reasons, you should use Gravol with caution if driving or doing other things that require you to be fully alert. It can be especially dangerous to combine it with alcohol and other depressant drugs. * Dry mouth, excitation and nervousness (especially in children) are other side effects. * Abusers often take 5 to 25 tablets. At the lower doses, you can experience feelings of well-being and euphoria. At the higher doses you can hallucinate. Taking Gravol with alcohol, codeine and other depressant drugs intensifies these effects. * Large doses can also cause sluggishness, paranoia, agitation, memory loss, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and difficulty swallowing and speaking. * Overdosing can result in confusion, irrational behaviour, muscle uncoordination, high fever and convulsions. Serious heart and breathing problems and coma can follow. * Children experience these symptoms at lower doses than adults, and are especially prone to convulsions. Prompt medical attention is needed to treat overdoses. * Overdoses ranging from 25 to 250 mg per kilogram of body weight can be fatal in adults. Long-Term Effects Chronic heavy users report problems with depression, confusion, loss of energy, vomiting, urine retention, and difficulty thinking and socializing.