20th January – caffeine

Try Reducing your caffeine intake.

I love my coffee, I really do, especially first thing in the morning. And, I’m not alone – apart from oil, coffee is the most traded commodity in the world. But the caffeine in it can be a problem because of the effect it has on sleep, and the subsequent effects on the rest of our health. Caffeine makes it more difficult to fall asleep, and once asleep, if we have caffeine in our system, the quality of the sleep that we do get is poorer.

⏰Caffeine stays in our system for a long time. If you have a cup of coffee, approximately half of the caffeine is still in your system 6hours later, and a quarter of it is still there 12hours later. ⏰That means, if (like me) you have 2 cups of coffee first thing in the morning at 8am…
…a whole cup’s worth is still in your system at 2pm, ….and half a cup of coffee worth of caffeine is still there at 8pm (and half of that is still around at 2am😬)

And it’s not just coffee! Caffeine is found in:
☕️Coffee
🫖Tea (and some herbal teas!)
🍵Green Tea
🍫Chocolate (especially dark chocolate)
🧋Energy drinks
💊Some pain-relief medications available over-the-counter

And over time, excess caffeine can contribute to
🔺Insomnia
🔺High-blood pressure
🔺Headache
🔺Tolerance to caffeine, meaning you need more of it to have the same effect which then can lead to…
🔺…withdrawal effects

So, I still do love my coffee, but I switch to decaf after breakfast, and every so often I try to have a total caffeine detox for a week or so. (Not at the moment though, it’s too cold to not have a hot cuppa to warm me up!)