Image by Andi@Zeo
For years, I didn’t go more than a day without at least a coffee in the morning; otherwise the headaches would begin. My typical, caffeinated day looked like this:
- 1-2 medium sized coffees every morning
- 1 can or bottle of diet soda at lunch
- 1 small or medium iced coffee or diet soda in the afternoon–but not every afternoon.
Interestingly enough, I never felt that caffeine disrupted my sleep or impacted the rest of my lifestyle much.
It’s Not You, It’s Me
That said, I still wanted to see if I could go without. I volunteered to participate in an experiment studying the effects of caffeine on the body. For control purposes, one regularly caffeinated person (me) would quit cold turkey for a week while another person (who very rarely consumes any caffeine) would have 3 servings a day.
- Days 1-3: The first three days were torture–I had headaches and felt exhausted, not to mention cranky. It was hard to focus on normal tasks, and I felt much clumsier.
- Days 4-5: The headaches started to subside. I had completly changed my breakfast routine –instead of that cup of coffee, I had a glass of cold water and a bowl of cereal.
- Days 6+: Six days in, I was listening to my body more closely. Instead of masking my exhaustion with caffeine, I focused instead on getting the sleep I needed to feel good during the day. For me, this meant going to bed earlier; a possible result of this change was that I also started getting more REM sleep. I’m now averaging 40 more minutes of REM Sleep per night since the switch!
REM Sleep before and after quitting caffeine
My Life Post Break-Up
For me, quitting caffeine became a lesson in listening to my body and learning what it needs to feel healthy, day and night. I noticed that I experience fewer spikes and lulls in my energy levels throughout the day. I pay more attention when my body tells me its tired and act accordingly instead of masking it with caffeine. Now, if I have any caffeinated beverage, I drink a lot less of it than I did before. To help me maintain these changes, I developed the following rules:
- Don’t schedule morning meetings. My body really craved that morning cup of coffee and I found it was easier to let those feelings subside than to deal with them while I was trying to do something important.
- Exercise more to feel more energized.
- Get back to (food) basics. Eating healthy food and drinking lots of water–instead of coffee or sodas–gave me consistent energy through the day.
What about you; have you experimented with your daily caffeine habit? What did you find? Comment here, or join the discussion on the forum.
Emily (ZQ:91) is responsible for creating and designing company advertising, as well as the Zeo and myZeo websites. She’s always looking for new and informative ways to spread the word about Zeo.
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You are a braver soul than I am, kicking the habit of coffee.
Do you still abstain or have you let one cup back into your life? I’m on the fence as to caffeine’s hindrance to sleep if you drink it first thing in the morning and have a clear cut off point in your day in which you don’t drink any more. I can understand how late afternoon or lunch may be too late in the day.
I’m just curious, as it’s one habit of mine that I’m sure isn’t helping me get enough rest. But I also don’t know if I’m brave enough to kick it cold turkey and for good!
- Alicia Benjamin
@leximaven on Twitter
I quit coffee cold turkey 2 months ago, and the headaches were incredibly painful. Two weeks ago, I also cut out tea. I had withdrawal headaches from that, as well, but not nearly as bad as with the coffee.
I only got my zeo yesterday, so I don’t have pre-caffeine data, however there have been noticeable differences. In particular, I find it far easier to fall asleep at night.
I was lucky and unlucky, I was unlucky because in a day I had the worlds biggest headache and vomited violently, but luckily it subsided after that and im feeling much better now, like im now starting to recover after a little over 24 hours which is suprising considering I have been drinking caffeine for over 20 years that consisted of at least 6 cupsof tea a day