When I Learned This Fact About Caffeine, I Resolved to Never Drink It Again
The fact is that for long-term caffeine drinkers, the “jolt” we feel when we drink caffeine doesn’t even return us to our normal baseline levels of alertness. In other words, caffeine doesn’t really “work.”
I have personally battled caffeine for several decades. The battle goes like this:
I tell myself that I’m going to limit my daily caffeine intake, maybe to one beverage. I drink just one coffee, tea, or soda each morning for a while. Over time, I get tired or my thinking slows, so I drink a little more “just this once” to get me through an important presentation, class, or meeting. Soon my “just this once” amount becomes my new baseline. And after a while, even that new baseline starts to have less and less impact.
I’ve tried reducing or eliminating caffeine, but I’ve failed every single time.
Much of my resistance to quitting was physical. I would start my morning without caffeine and by noon, I was absolutely miserable. Not wanting to ruin my entire day, I’d drink a cup of coffee or a Diet Pepsi. Like slipping into an old pair of jeans, I would relax and go on with my day, promising that I would never again start my day without caffeine.
After a poor night of sleep, I would rely on caffeine to get myself going. And the more caffeine I drank, the worse I would sleep, creating a vicious cycle.
I also really enjoyed the ritual of a warm, rich cup of coffee, a cold Diet Pepsi on a hot day, or a cup of tea on a chilly morning. Caffeine tastes good and feels good.
The final part of my resistance to quit caffeine was intellectual. Many studies espouse the benefits of caffeine—alertness, energy, improved endurance, etc. About 85 percent of U.S. consumers drink caffeine daily. Every time I tried to quit I would tell myself: 280 million people can’t be wrong! How bad can it really be?
As I enter middle age, I continue to fight like hell to increase—not decrease—my alertness, productivity, energy, and enjoyment of life. I am game for anything that gives me an additional physical, intellectual, or emotional boost. So I decided to dig into the science of caffeine and to explore my own habits.
How caffeine works.
“As I continued my research, I came to a really surprising conclusion: after you build a tolerance to caffeine, it doesn’t really work. ”
As your body grows tired, it produces a chemical called adenosine. That chemical then binds with adenosine receptors in your brain and other organs and makes you feel tired. During sleep, your brain replenishes its energy levels and reduces adenosine levels. When your adenosine levels drop below a certain level and stop activating, you wake up feeling refreshed.
Here’s where caffeine comes in. The molecular structure of caffeine is very similar to adenosine. Caffeine molecules bind with adenosine receptors, blocking out the bond those receptors usually form with adenosine. Caffeine essentially blocks your body’s natural process for telling you to rest. That block keeps you from feeling tired, but it is only a temporary fix.
When you drink caffeine regularly—like most of us do—your body creates more adenosine receptors to compensate for those consistently blocked out by caffeine. Once your body metabolizes the caffeine in your body, since you have more adenosine receptors than you normally would, you crash lower than you would have from natural tiredness.
So consistent caffeine drinkers have two choices: drink more and more caffeine to block the additional adenosine receptors or experience a continually reduced impact of drinking caffeine.
My battle with quitting caffeine.
I was experiencing all of these symptoms. I found myself drinking more and more caffeine and crashing harder. The crashes were really tough on me physically and emotionally. I finally asked myself: Would I be better off without any caffeine at all?
As I continued my research, I came to a really surprising conclusion: after you build a tolerance to caffeine, it doesn’t really work. According to researchers at the University of Bristol, after your body creates a tolerance to caffeine, which happens in as little as three days, caffeine does not improve your alertness, energy, or concentration over your normal baseline levels. In another study, test subjects who normally avoided caffeine became desensitized to its effects in just one to four days. The “jolt” you feel after drinking a cup of coffee is actually a reversal of the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. And this “jolt” didn’t even return most subjects to their normal baseline levels of alertness.
Let the battle begin!
I had conquered the first battle in my fight with caffeine: the intellectual one. I was finally ready to admit to myself that my habit of drinking caffeine was one I would be better off without.
I knew quitting would be difficult and that I’d failed many times before, so I prepared for an all-out war. After trying to wean myself off caffeine several times, I observed three challenges:
The physical battle in caffeine withdrawal
The cravings
The need to use caffeine to be and feel productive
Fighting the physical battle: I engaged my first weapon, my calendar. I had a minor knee surgery scheduled and had already blocked a period of three days—Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday—for recovery. With the addition of the weekend I had five days without too many responsibilities, a good place to start. I was already going to be pretty miserable post-surgery, so I decided to add caffeine withdrawal to my recovery. Yikes! Preparing for the worst, I moved several meetings the following week to give myself flexibility to rest if I needed it.
Resisting the cravings: To prepare for the cravings, I looked for replacements for my usual caffeinated drinks. I bought key lime juice to add a little flavor to water, decaf coffee, and cans of caffeine-free Diet Pepsi. Diet soda isn’t the best thing to put in your body, but I was willing to use this short-term crutch to satisfy my cravings. I figured it was okay to give a little ground in this small battle to win the longer-term war.
Letting go of the need for constant productivity: And finally, I faced the internal battle of needing to feel “on” and “productive” all the time. These next two weeks were going to be rough, so I gave myself permission to be less productive, to rest, and to not perform at my best every second of every day. Letting go of productivity might have been the hardest part.
Here’s what happened.
The first week was rough. By 10 a.m. each day, I experienced an intense craving for caffeine as a rush of tiredness swept over my body. I felt tired and grumpy, but I was also prepared and resolved.
For the first several days, when the tiredness swept over me, I lay down. Some days I fell into a deep sleep, other days I just rested. When I got up, I felt reasonably refreshed. It felt as though the rest or nap partially took the place of the caffeine jolt. My body had sent me signals to rest—releasing adenosine—and rather than blocking those signals with caffeine, I heeded them by resting. I listened to my body!
When I started back up at work, I used my 30-60 minute lunch breaks each day the first week to rest. I only slept one of those days; on the others, I let myself unwind and relax. It wasn’t the most productive work week of my life, but it also wasn’t as bad as I expected. Returning to work triggered my cravings, too. While on calls and in meetings, when I normally would have reached for coffee or soda, I drank lime-flavored water, decaf coffee, or caffeine-free soda. The cravings continued into the second week back at work, though in the second week, I only rested once.
Life on the other side.
While quitting the caffeine habit was tough, being off caffeine feels amazing. It has truly changed my life. Nearly all day every day I feel better than I did during the post-caffeine “rush” I used to feel each morning. No exaggeration.
I have noticed I sleep more deeply and dream more. And I need almost a full hour less of sleep each night. While I still get a little tired by the end of a long day, I don’t crash mid-day like I used to and I don’t battle the steep downswings I experienced when drinking caffeine.
Our bodies respond to caffeine differently. Many are fine having a cup or two of coffee in the morning, others are highly sensitive to caffeine. I’ve personally found I’m much better off without it. Some of you will struggle to quit even more than I struggled, others will have no problem at all. Some of you will decide that the positive elements of caffeine-drinking rituals outweigh the potential benefits of quitting. As with many habits, there is no one solution that will work for everyone. But for me, going off caffeine has been life-changing. I feel like I’m 20 again!
What about you? How does caffeine help or hurt your pursuit of your best self? Email me at grahamweaverblog@gmail.com to share your thoughts.