As it is after 4 AM, I am learning a valuable lesson in giving up caffeine. About six weeks ago, I gave up caffeine, which was fairly hard for about three days, but otherwise, long term beneficial. My caffeine delivery system of choice for the last 30 or so years was soda, usually a brown liquid capable of killing anything, but Sunkist has caffeine as well and if you are truly interested in caffeine, then you should know all of the ways to ingest it.
Despite having made a clean break, I have an exception, which is the one soda a week rule. Sometimes, you are out somewhere and it is difficult to either just have a water or find another available beverage that you are capable of drinking. Think a bar, which might have juice, but without the alcohol, Tang is not acceptable for anything.
So, the last few weeks, I had one and it was OK. But tonight, I was having a moment and used my one soda at Target, where I had a Coke around 9:30 PM. Well, the Coke certainly took the edge off how I was feeling, but at the same time, it left me wide awake. So, I saw 1 AM and 2 AM and 3 AM and even 4 AM. Sitting here, I'm not quite tired, but not quite awake and have that feeling that the stimulant factor is all that is stopping me from enjoying a few hours of sleep before the snow hits.
But the stimulant is coursing through my veins. Back in the day, I could have a Coke, then go straight to sleep. Now admittedly, I slept poorly, but even after giving up caffeine, I wouldn't declare myself a good sleeper and still suffer from nightmares in the dark and waking up about every 90 minutes, just around the edges of REM sleep. It's really terrible. Of course, being full of caffeine, which used to be table stakes for existence, stimulates your mind and keeps you wide awake. Horribly so, requiring me to write meaningless journal entries about my empty life at a time where the vast majority of the people in my time zone are dead to the world.
Lessons learned, I will work on not having that one soda per week so late, especially if I am just heading home to do nothing. On the other hand, I did learn that I can fit into my old pants today, so I can stave off finding new pants to purchase for another few months, so it was not an entirely bad trip into the day.
Showing posts with label caffeine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label caffeine. Show all posts
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Caffeine Crash
There is certainly a downside of caffeine, which is stopping. It is hard to remember times in my life where I was not drinking four or more caffeinated beverages a day. What I do remember is most of the times that I stopped with caffeine.
There are two possible reactions to stopping caffeine for me. The first is nothing happens and life presses on. This is by far the best scenario. It usually happens when you are unaware you are giving up caffeine or have the decency to slow down, rather than hit the breaks and stop cold turkey. You tend not to have caffeine at 11 PM and say, what a fine choice this is. Instead, you go from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1, in a nice, safe decline. You eventually start back, either unthinkingly at a restaurant or knowingly, because something just has to be done and back on the horse you are, blissfully unaware your detoxification failed.
The other possible reaction is the dead stop. Rather than go to the store the last few days, I said, maybe I'll just give up caffeine again. A sound plan, except for the part where I was up until 4 AM on Monday night, restless. So, Tuesday, caffeinated beverages gone, six inches of snow on the ground, I go about my business, I was a little tired by the end of the night, but thought nothing of it.
And then tomorrow comes. I wake up early, but with nothing specific to be handled, I take myself from the couch to my bed and decided to sleep some more. Barely awakening to a confirm and take a phone call, I set about my day. I take a second phone call, get ready to take care of a few errands and the wall comes crashing down. I was ready to leave, but my mind checked out and said, "NAP TIME!!!" I actually dropped my computer out of my hand at an awkward angle, which led to the power cord reaching its end time, requiring me to either find the spare or make this one last until early next week.
At which point I dragged myself back to bed, woke up three hours later with a splitting headache and the sensation I should not have given up caffeine and this very unilluminating blog post.
There are two possible reactions to stopping caffeine for me. The first is nothing happens and life presses on. This is by far the best scenario. It usually happens when you are unaware you are giving up caffeine or have the decency to slow down, rather than hit the breaks and stop cold turkey. You tend not to have caffeine at 11 PM and say, what a fine choice this is. Instead, you go from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1, in a nice, safe decline. You eventually start back, either unthinkingly at a restaurant or knowingly, because something just has to be done and back on the horse you are, blissfully unaware your detoxification failed.
The other possible reaction is the dead stop. Rather than go to the store the last few days, I said, maybe I'll just give up caffeine again. A sound plan, except for the part where I was up until 4 AM on Monday night, restless. So, Tuesday, caffeinated beverages gone, six inches of snow on the ground, I go about my business, I was a little tired by the end of the night, but thought nothing of it.
And then tomorrow comes. I wake up early, but with nothing specific to be handled, I take myself from the couch to my bed and decided to sleep some more. Barely awakening to a confirm and take a phone call, I set about my day. I take a second phone call, get ready to take care of a few errands and the wall comes crashing down. I was ready to leave, but my mind checked out and said, "NAP TIME!!!" I actually dropped my computer out of my hand at an awkward angle, which led to the power cord reaching its end time, requiring me to either find the spare or make this one last until early next week.
At which point I dragged myself back to bed, woke up three hours later with a splitting headache and the sensation I should not have given up caffeine and this very unilluminating blog post.
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