caffeine free?

[aroraborealis]

A month or two ago, I had a series of unusually bad nights of sleep, which, upon reflection, I thought might be related to drinking coffee too late in the day. I used to be able to enjoy an afternoon coffee as late as about 4pm, and then it moved to 2pm, but now it seems like maybe after noon is too late for me if I want to sleep that night.

It's irritating because I adore coffee in the afternoon. It's even better than morning coffee for me somehow, experientially. But I also adore sleep, so it's not a worthwhile tradeoff.

And it's not that drinking coffee too late leads to falling asleep too late. It actually somehow prevents me sleeping at all, which I find kind of baffling. Shouldn't it just be that I can't sleep until it's out of my system? But it appears that if I get into bed at a time when the caffeine is still actively preventing sleep, then I basically won't sleep at all, or maybe a restless couple of hours between 5-7.

Bodies are stupid.

I may just switch to decaf all the time, and then I can go back to drinking it in the afternoon! :D

Comments

[whynotkay.livejournal.com]

Can you not drink caffeinated in the morning, and decaf in the afternoon?

I have recently started to enjoy decaf in the afternoon. I get a buzz out of decaf. Caffeinated coffee is NEVER a good idea for me.

[dakotakym.livejournal.com]

I feel ya on enjoying coffee in the afternoon (I often don't even brew my first cup til then). So far, my only weird coffee reaction is that if I drink more than a pot's worth, I want a nap..

Have you tried bulletproof coffee (it's the coffee version of Tibetan butter tea)? Not only is it super delicious, but the added fat makes the coffee metabolize differently (I notice sustained mental acuity, and a slower, steadier release of the caffeine).

May you find a good balance to enjoying the deliciousness of both coffee and sleep!

[blk]

It sounds like I have a somewhat similar reaction to caffeine too late in the day: it doesn't just mean I fall asleep later, it also means that when i finally do sleep, it's very restless and in-and-out, with vivid dreams, the entire time until morning. Oddly, I don't often feel significantly worse the next day (except cheated on a relaxing night), but that might be simply because it doesn't happen too often for me, and I'm otherwise not short on sleep.

On occasion when I am trying to stay up late I've been able to balance out alcohol (which makes me sleepy) with a small amount of caffeine, but I try not to do that often because it doesn't help all that much and it's easy to get wrong.

For me, it's tea, and while I have found several decaf options I like, there aren't as many, and they often taste different from the regular versions!

[clara-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm totally on caffeinated coffee... then decaf if i insist on a second cup.. and kava tea at night to fall asleep. :)

also... alcohol does not help me sleep. at all. if i have a drink, it should be in the early enough evening so it's basically out of my body when i go to bed.