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One thing that was striking to me when quitting caffeine (after drinking coffee consistently for years every day) was how after a week or two the feeling you ha

by gfodor 9y ago

One thing that was striking to me when quitting caffeine (after drinking coffee consistently for years every day) was how after a week or two the feeling you have when waking up is completely different. I had always assumed when you wake up it was normal to feel terrible until the morning coffee. Not so. Off caffeine, a proper nights sleep will have you up and active right away.

majormajor 9y ago
> Off caffeine, a proper nights sleep will have you up and active right away. This is not universally true. I've experienced mornings in four different cases. Chronologically: drinking lots of soda, dropping caffeine and taking Adderall, consuming basically no stimulants for a year or so other than the occasional soda once or twice a month, and drinking black coffee and/or green tea regularly. They've all been universally pretty awful, with still an hour of snooze button needed at most, but caffeine by itself has been the least bad both for mornings (including compared to no stimulant consumption) and in terms of overall side effects. By far the worst regular day-to-day experience is the caffeine+sugar combo, though. If you can tolerate your caffeine without sugar, it can be quite nice. (The worst absolute experience is a cold-turkey dropping of amphetamines for a weekend to reset a growing tolerance. Be prepared to watch a lot of TV, eat a lot of cheetos, and have very little desire or ability for serious thinking.)
- ljw1001 9y ago
  Assuming you wake with an alarm, the biggest impact on how you feel when you first wake is where you were in your sleep cycle. In deep or REM sleep you will feel lousy.
frobozz 9y ago
Taking a stimulant wthin a short period of waking up can interfere with your natural waking process. That might be why you felt bad. Rather than quitting caffeine entirely, waiting two hours after waking (e.g. when you get to work) may also fix that dependency.

by gfodor 9y ago

majormajor 9y ago

> Off caffeine, a proper nights sleep will have you up and active right away. This is not universally true. I've experienced mornings in four different cases. Chronologically: drinking lots of soda, dropping caffeine and taking Adderall, consuming basically no stimulants for a year or so other than the occasional soda once or twice a month, and drinking black coffee and/or green tea regularly. They've all been universally pretty awful, with still an hour of snooze button needed at most, but caffeine by itself has been the least bad both for mornings (including compared to no stimulant consumption) and in terms of overall side effects. By far the worst regular day-to-day experience is the caffeine+sugar combo, though. If you can tolerate your caffeine without sugar, it can be quite nice. (The worst absolute experience is a cold-turkey dropping of amphetamines for a weekend to reset a growing tolerance. Be prepared to watch a lot of TV, eat a lot of cheetos, and have very little desire or ability for serious thinking.)

ljw1001 9y ago
Assuming you wake with an alarm, the biggest impact on how you feel when you first wake is where you were in your sleep cycle. In deep or REM sleep you will feel lousy.

frobozz 9y ago

Taking a stimulant wthin a short period of waking up can interfere with your natural waking process. That might be why you felt bad. Rather than quitting caffeine entirely, waiting two hours after waking (e.g. when you get to work) may also fix that dependency.