Nine days ago I started shrinking the size of my coffee cups. After downsizing to a small cup, and going “half and half” on the caffeine/decaf, I finally made it to day one of “tea only” this past Friday. This puts me at four days coffee free today. Yes, tea does have caffeine in it, but green tea has less than coffee (black tea has more caffeine than coffee). I am drinking orange blossom green tea in the morning and chamomile at night. In August I started a new goal of having one cup of tea a day, so giving up coffee has given me a boost in achieving this by opening the slots to be filled with a new beverage.
I have noticed many changes this week in myself physically, and mentally. I suppose I can start by discussing how over the last two years I had been dealing with physical stressors on my body, one example being chest pains. After two visits to the doctor and an echocardiogram last fall it was decided the chest pains were from stress, but these pains came and went for almost two years, sometimes lasting for hours. Yes, they did appear more frequently during times of stress, but sometimes they would appear without any trigger reason to explain it.
I had also experienced waves of sleeping really well, and waves of not sleeping at all. I exercise frequently; take warm showers before bed and more recently have turned off all electronic devices one hour before bed time to decrease stimulation. This summer however, I am sure I was passing out from exhaustion, but not truly sleeping. I would pass out easily before 11pm, wake up around 1 or 2 am and struggle falling back asleep for hours. As if chest pains and insomnia weren’t enough, I experienced feeling tense. This feeling was something I didn’t even realize I had so badly until it went away. With each passing day that I walked further away from multiple cups of coffee, I began feeling lighter. It is difficult to explain, but what I think started happening was the tension, jitter feeling, and anxiety that caffeine has been known to cause was starting to leave my system. Even though I have felt small moments of stress this week, I don’t physically feel the same level of tightness in my chest and arms that I had come to accept as “stress”.
I believe the combination of actual stress and caffeine created tension, and anxiety had created for me a supernova of physical symptoms. Caffeine can stay in the blood system for up to 8 hours. This means afternoon coffee before class at 4 pm (which I did all the time), could keep me wired well until midnight. When I wake up in the morning the first thing I put in my body? A cup of coffee. I had realized during this week that I was probably spending over 20 hours a day with caffeine in my system on some level. Over a period of months and years, this can lead to not only the addiction I had, but absolutely can explain chest pains, jitter, tension, anxiety, and trouble sleeping. Holy ****, how can I stick up for a coffee addiction now? Look at that powerhouse list of awful symptoms I just wrote out. Since slowly decreasing my intake, I have been falling asleep much easier. But it is not just the falling asleep that matters, since I have been able to fall asleep in the past. It is the fact that I have not woken up in the middle of the night that resonates the most with me.
I jokingly tell others that the only way to explain the release of tension in my chest and arms, combined with the drowsy feeling I am still experiencing, is to say I feel sedated. Last night I compared myself to a Koala bear, which is known to lie in the trees gnawing on eucalyptus, which has a chemical component in the leaves that make the bears drowsy. Despite my comparison to a bear that appears stoned all day long, I still feel a massive improvement in my body and mind in only 9 short days of beginning this dietary change. I am sleeping through the night, feel calmer, and even notice myself clenching less. Actually, I haven’t clenched any muscles or my jaw at all this week. My goodness, all this time I was either accepting these things as stress, or not even noticing they were happening until they went away.
If you are having trouble sleeping, but are not addicted to caffeine as a possible reason for it, I have dietary suggestions for you as well. Tryptophan is an amino acid found in eggs, cheese, and turkey which causes a feeling of sleepiness. Foods with tryptophan combined with a carbohydrate make for the best evening meals or snacks to assist the body in winding down for bed. Turns out, “breakfast for dinner” can be acceptable here. Try scrambled eggs for dinner with one slice of whole wheat toast, or snacks such as a low fat cheese stick with cherry tomatoes and whole wheat crackers, or a few slices of turkey (for the meat eaters) on a rice cake. Walnuts also aid in sleep (and you only need 4 to reap this benefit, which is good considering walnuts are a high calorie food). You can also try sprinkling four walnuts into a low fat yogurt cup as a bedtime snack. Before I would ever recommend a sleep aid or medication to anyone, I would suggest all of the above. You may find a few eggs before bed does the trick, or you may (like me) realize giving up a food or beverage made a difference in how you feel. Nutrition is the front line in how our bodies function, and we should be adjusting here before giving up hope that we will never sleep or feel well.
(I think I will be switching to decaf from now on when I miss the taste of coffee, but I am not thinking too far ahead. For now, I am enjoying the feeling of it leaving my system, and the chance to start fresh).
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