My brother told me giving up caffeine did a lot to improve his sleep quality. I don’t drink that much, probably about 400-600mg a day. A cup of coffee in the morning (about 200mg) and the rest in diet soda throughout the day.
So I have given it up for 4 days now, not drinking coffee and switching to non-caffinated sodas. I haven’t slept better, in fact the first 2 days I slept a couple hours more than normal and was still exhausted. That is all I’m noticing so far, I’m more tired and had trouble getting through today. I really didn’t think caffeine had this much of an effect on me. I can sleep a 7-9 hours and still be tired. Hopefully this will pass (if it is based on the caffeine and not something else) and will be better in a week or so.
Has anyone noticed positive benefits from not taking caffeine? What if a person just takes it in the morning, then takes none after 11am-2pm? The half life is 5 hours, so it should be mostly out of the system by midnight. What are decent caffeine free sodas? I normally drink coke zero and mt. dew. But decaf mt. dew is hard to find in my area.
How much coffee do you drink? I drink a ridiculous amount of caffeinated drinks, and sometimes having one before I go to sleep relaxes me. I think it’s the addiction outweighing the base effect.
I used to be able to drink coffee all day and sleep like a lot anyway, but just this year I’ve noticed that drinking any kind of caffeine after about 6 p.m. keeps me up until around 2 a.m. It sucks. Sometimes I just really crave a soda in the evening, but I always regret having had one if I indulge.
So, yeah, caffeine negatively impacts my sleep - now. I generally cut myself off around 11 a.m., or whenever my last cup of coffee is consumed at work.
I’m down to about two cups a day: one in the morning, one at night. There’s been many a time when I had much more, though – typically when I was doing nothing for a living but freelance writing (which I don’t do at all any more). Part of my ritual in writing is to have a hot drink close at hand, so when writing is my only source of income I’ve been known to have six or seven venti double redeyes in a workday.
I’ve quit caffeine a couple of times now. I need to remember to stay quit - the drawbacks outweigh the brief benefits for me.
It takes a while, maybe a week or two? But once the addiction has lost its hold on me, I definitely notice that I sleep better (falling asleep more easily, and getting a more restful sleep). I also have better energy throughout the day. A fruit smoothie (Berry Boost from Bolthouse Farms) does a great job when I need a pick-me-up or a little help getting moving in the morning.
Yes. I avoid caffeine at all costs unless I’m already sleep deprived and it doesn’t matter. On a normal day, I can’t expect to drink anything with caffeine in it and expect to get to sleep without taking a sleeping pill.
My room is completely dark as if I were sleeping in a coffin and I sleep with a fan on and I avoid caffeine, even soda, especially after 4pm.
My caffeine habit got to scary levels last year. I would drink two strong black Americanos before work, then a third when I got to the office. 10.30 another one, noon, another one. Then one after lunch, one for my afternoon break, and when I got home from work I’d drink a couple of cups too. That nine coffees a day, and not counting the cups of tea I’d drink.
Meanwhile I was also complaining about insomnia. “That’s just how I am,” I would say. “It’s not the caffeine, I’m immune to its effects.”
Bullshit.
I went cold turkey and apart from a mild headache that lasted a week, substituting herbal teas for coffee wasn’t that bad. In a negative sense, I felt that in the morning I was gliding into wakefulness over a couple of hours, rather than bang! awake! as before. But in a positive sense, after a few days I was getting a full eight hours’ sleep, every night. It was bliss.
Lasted a month and have gone back to it, but at nowhere near the levels I ‘enjoyed’ before. I still have two in the morning and maybe one after lunch, but then I stop. My sleep is still much improved.
I do occasionally employ a power-nap method someone told me about: drink a very strong coffee then go straight into a nap. After about 15 minutes the caffeine wakes you up and you feel great. Works for me.
I don’t think it makes much difference. I’ve cut back from 4 caffeinated beverages/day (~300 mg) to 3 (~260 mg) and all I am is stupider at work. Then I sleep worse, worrying about my dullness at work. I usually have iced tea with dinner, and I do notice that strong iced tea might cause a little delay in my falling asleep, certainly <1 hour.
I used to get tremendous grinding headaches in the early evening that went away when I cut out caffeine altogether (not on purpose; I was on holiday for two weeks and they didn’t have very nice tea, so I stopped drinking it, then the headaches stopped, then I went “…oh” and never looked back). I can do two or three cups a week, but any more than that and my head starts to hurt.
I’ve recently cut caffeine back to the morning, and I do think I’m sleeping a bit better: as others have said, easier to fall asleep initially and if I wake in the night. I’m still in cutting back / withdrawal mode, though, so the afternoon slumps are brutal. I’m using caffeine-free soda for the psychological part of the habit.
I was a big caffeine fiend until I quit in January this year. My caffeine of choice was Diet Coke, and at my worst, I was going through 8 or 10 cans every DAY. Anyway, I made my New Year’s Resolution to quit, and while I haven’t exactly quit 100%, I no longer buy Diet Coke at the grocery store. (Though I will order it at a restaurant, I figure that’s okay since we don’t eat out very much, maybe once or twice a month or less.)
After 20 years of caffeine tolerance, those first few weeks REALLY sucked. Even my headache had a headache. My sleep patterns got worse, for about a month, then got much better. My teeth have gained about 2 shades of whiteness. At first, my attention span seemed to be severely reduced, but after a month or so I didn’t notice it anymore.
Probably the most surprising thing was how STRONG the cravings were, even months after I had quit. I didn’t have that much trouble quitting smoking, that’s for sure.
Want to know a fun fact? Diet Coke will strip all the enamel from your teeth if you drink it day-in, day-out. Then you will get a ton of cavities. Ask me how I know how!
Serious, unsolicited advice for all you diet soda drinkers out there, who like me used to constantly sip on them all day long: stop! Stop now!!!
I used to think I was fine, because diet soda doesn’t have sugar. Not true. Diet soda (esp diet coke) is very acidic. If you drink it all day long, it will eventually dissolve your teeth. I now consider myself an ex-diet soda drinker, and quit about a month ago. I plan to never go back.
I used to have trouble sleeping occasionally. I cut the coffee (switched to decaf) and now I sleep much better. I used to take an over the counter sleeping pill every now and then. Now I can’t even remember the last time I needed one.
I stopped drinking caffeine for about 4 months. The only difference I noticed was that I was more tired in the morning at work. I didn’t notice any positive changes.
This is less of a problem if are consistent about using a straw. That’s advice from a dentist, and my diet coke (now caffeine-free diet coke) habit hasn’t caused those problems. Yet.
