For years, I didn't go more than a day without at least a coffee in the morning; otherwise the headaches would begin.  My typical, caffeinated day looked like this:

• 1-2 medium sized coffees every morning
• 1 can or bottle of diet soda at lunch
• 1 small or medium iced coffee or diet soda in the afternoon--but not every afternoon.

Interestingly enough, I never felt that caffeine disrupted my sleep or impacted the rest of my lifestyle much.

It's Not You, It's Me

That said, I still wanted to see if I could go without.  I volunteered to participate in an experiment studying the effects of caffeine on the body. For control purposes, one regularly caffeinated person (me) would quit cold turkey for a week while another person (who very rarely consumes any caffeine) would have 3 servings a day.

• Days 1-3:  The first three days were torture--I had headaches and felt exhausted, not to mention cranky.  It was hard to focus on normal tasks, and I felt much clumsier.

• Days 4-5: The headaches started to subside.  I had completly changed my breakfast routine --instead of that cup of coffee, I had a glass of cold water and a bowl of cereal.

• Days 6+:  Six days in, I was listening to my body more closely. Instead of masking my exhaustion with caffeine, I focused instead on getting the sleep I needed to feel good during the day. For me, this meant going to bed earlier; a possible result of this change was that I also started getting more REM sleep.  I’m now averaging 40 more minutes of REM Sleep per night since the switch!

My Life Post Break-Up

For me, quitting caffeine became a lesson in listening to my body and learning what it needs to feel healthy, day and night. I noticed that I experience fewer spikes and lulls in my energy levels throughout the day.  I pay more attention when my body tells me its tired and act accordingly instead of masking it with caffeine.  Now, if I have any caffeinated beverage, I drink a lot less of it than I did before.  To help me maintain these changes, I developed the following rules:

1. Don't schedule morning meetings. My body really craved that morning cup of coffee and I found it was easier to let those feelings subside than to deal with them while I was trying to do something important.
2. Exercise more to feel more energized.
3. Get back to (food) basics. Eating healthy food and drinking lots of water--instead of coffee or sodas--gave me consistent energy through the day.

What about you; have you experimented with your daily caffeine habit?  What did you find?  Comment here, or join the discussion on the forum.

Emily (ZQ:91) is responsible for creating and designing company advertising, as well as the Zeo and myZeo websites.  She's always looking for new and informative ways to spread the word about Zeo.