Yesterday I drank more coffee than normal and I had a very difficult time falling asleep. The correlation really because obvious to me, and considering insomnia is one of the biggest problems I have health wise, I've decided to stop drinking caffeine. I quit before and experienced some benefits like less back pain, but I'm going to pay special attention to sleep, epecially since I now have a sleep tracking bracelet so I can get more data on how my sleep is actually improving.
Day 1
I had one Earl Gray tea which has about ΒΌ the caffiene of a coffee, I'm not into going cold turkey and getting a headache all day. This should be enough to avoid a headache but drastically change the effect. I had a mint tea too which has 0 caffiene. It's actually pretty delicious, it's something I could get into. I think I have a big help quitting coffee because I don't drink it first thing when I wake up so I don't have the habbit part to break. I usually work at Starbucks and it should be pretty easy to just switch to Tea instead of coffee.
It's about 1pm right now and I definitely feel more relaxed, less anxiety.
Another note, I am also not drinking alcohol, or smoking tobacco, or any else. This will be the first time since my early teens when I have been 100% free of any drugs of any kind.
Day 2
Last night took minutes to fall asleep not hours like normal, usually 2-3 hours. Also I slept through the night. Seems like not a coincidence that I had such a different night of sleep after not drinking caffiene. Today I'm feeling super brain fog, I'm able to work through it though. I read some people having this experience for a few days. I was hoping to avoid it, but if getting through it means I can have good night sleeps it's a small price to pay.
This morning at Starbucks I got a decaf coffee with cream and sugar. It doesn't feel the same. Might be psychological but I feel like it doesn't have the same feel when drinking it. I think I'll stick with the mint tea in the future, tastes very good.
Day three
I'm still not feeling back to normal, I also woke up last night having to pee and I couldn't fall asleep for a very long time, like 4 hours. So I definitely am not immune to that anymore. I'm feeling way less groggy today, I still feel like I'm missing something though. Even though I woke up for a long time in the middle of the night, when I fell asleep again I was able to sleep the remaining 4 hours I needed. I usually wake up way too early and only get another couple hours.
Day four
I woke up this morning with a very painful lower back and hips. It almost feels like the same kind of body aches you get when you have the flu. I don't seem to be as lethargic or foggy today as I was yesterday. I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night to pee again but I fell back asleep very quickly, probably less than 5 or 10 minutes. It's also only taking me 5 or 10 minutes to fall asleep initially compared to hours. It's nice going to sleep cuz I don't dread laying in bed for hours tossing and turning waiting to actually fall asleep, Knowing I'm just going to get into bed and fall asleep almost right away is very soothing.
Day 5
Had a terrible headache last night, and woke up this morning with my hips and lower back aching like crazy. There was a moment yesterday after the Ibuprofen kicked in where I felt as calm and relaxed as I have in years. My body felt lose, like there was no tension or no stress. I'm noticing things that would be stressing me out at work with clients don't get me as worked up and the stress quickly subsides.
Day 6
Still waking up with body aches. Trying to take a bit less acetaminophen and ibuprofen as I've been taking them all day for days, but still need a few to deal with pain. Hopefully this ends soon, we are coming up on a week.
Day 7
I tried to go to bed without painkillers yesterday but I woke up shortly after falling asleep in pain, I took an ibuprofren and went to bed. Still have a good amount of lower back pain right now. Hoping this is over with soon.
Day 8
The body aches are still going strong. They are waking me up in the middle of the night unfortunately, although my sleep is still better getting woken up in the middle of the night and being able to fall back asleep eventually then when I was on caffeine. I was hoping that I would be coming out of it by now but still not feeling great. The body ache seemed to be just as strong as ever.
I tried to take a break from the painkillers yesterday so it wouldn't be my body everyday all day for a long time but I had to take some to get to sleep. I'm taking him again today so I can get some stuff done. Hoping there's only a couple more days of this.
Day 9
I woke up this morning with a terrible headache. I may have been dehdrated? I seem to be more suseptable to dehydration. Yesterday I only took a tylenol in the morning and nothing else for the rest of the day and aside from the headache, I Don't have any body pains so I'm hopefully I'm closer to the end of this pain than the begining.
Day 10
I woke up this morning and I felt tired so I went back to sleep for a while which is something I haven't been able to do in the past. I don't have a headache, body aches are so minimal I am not even sure if there's really anything there. I feel like I might be out the other end of this pain.
The gray in my beard has been disappearing, apparently things like alcohol and caffeine which are diuretics can affect your body's ability to absorb vitamin B6 and that is part of what you need to create pigment.
Day 11
I'm waking up at around 10:00 a.m. I woke up having to pee in the middle of the night and couldn't fall asleep mainly to a headache I had. I'm still not immune from waking up and not being able to fall asleep but I can eventually get to sleep and then make up for the sleep as opposed to waking up early and just moving on in the day with only a few hours.
It seems like my hydration has been out of whack, coffee is a diuretic so I'm sure it's going to take some time for my system to get used to not being forced to pee all the time but somehow that's translating into me not realizing I'm thirsty and then all of a sudden becoming extraordinarily thirsty and drinking 40 oz of water at a time. I'm going to have to make sure I pay special attention to that and make note of how much I've drank during the day.
Day 12
Yesterday I went to this tea shop and didn't immediately find any good non-caffeine options but I like the shop so I decided to try a green tea lychee drink which I figured maybe the caffeine was low enough in a green tea that it wouldn't matter. After only drinking about 2 in of it, I could feel myself clenching my jaw and I could feel my stomach getting bloated and painful.
I stopped drinking the tea and threw it away and moved to this strawberry milk drink that I found as a caffeine-free alternative. For the next few hours I felt all stressed out in my anxiety was higher than normal. After this experience it's not going to be hard to stay away from caffeine, I don't even like it anymore. I realized I was always in that state and feeling like crap and now I don't want to ever go back.
Day 13
I went to the sauna last night, and after I got out I felt as relaxed as I had a rigorous hour and a half long workout. I also went on the treadmill and did some running and was able to run longer than I have ever been able to before, including when I was doing it everyday and trying to slowly increment gain on times. My heart rate would always get up towards 170 and I would have to stop running, but this time my heart didn't go that fast and I was able to maintain for a long time.
I'm still getting some mild headaches sometimes, but they go away fast and only last maybe 10 or 20 minutes. My anxiety is virtually zero now. I was ignoring any dieting I was trying to do because quitting caffeine was taking priority and I needed some sort of relief, but now I feel like I can get back on the wagon. I really didn't gain any weight while quitting caffeine even though my sugar intake went up.
Day 14
I had a little bit of trouble going to sleep last night, I think it was mainly cuz I just wasn't ready yet but the time was after 10:00 so I decided to lay in bed. It's still only took less than 30 minutes. And then I woke up after only about 7 and 1/2 hours and felt pretty rested. Maybe I'm out of the phase where I'm going to be sleeping 10 hours a night? We'll see, one day does not a pattern make.
Day 15.
I woke up in the middle of the night but as previously stated I was able to fall asleep and stay asleep until I got what I needed. This will be my last entry as it seems like the withdrawal stage is mostly over and my sleep seems to have stabilized, and the pain has gone away.
Now that the withdrawal period seems to be in the past, here's a list of the positive effects I have had.
Less gray in my beard.
Less likely to wake up in the middle of the night and not fall asleep, able to fall asleep within 15 minutes of laying in bed.
My REM sleep has gone from 30 minutes to an hour to one and a half to two and a half hours since quitting coffee. I remember dreams almost every morning now.
My face looks less puffy like I have less inflammation.
My digestive system seems to be working better. My heart doesn't erase when I eat certain foods anymore, I don't feel bloated after eating carbs.
I am not crashing in the middle of the day and have constant energy the whole time.
My anxiety has basically dropped to zero.
On the days I was only getting four or five hours of sleep I had a tendency to binge eat which is no longer the case.
Overall, being able to sleep an appropriate amount every night has really changed my life. I'm thankful that I will be able to move forward the rest of my life and get adequate sleep. It's been the biggest problem I've had for a long time, affecting all sorts of other aspects of life. I am accomplishing so much more everyday now that I'm not tired. I'm excited for things to come.