Comments | vakkotaur: Is it the (lack of) caffeine?

vakkotaur

Is it the (lack of) caffeine?

Dec 19, 2003 17:47

It's been about two months since I stopped using caffeine. I've noticed that I feel better, or perhaps I should say that mood cycling is more neutral. I'm not sure if it's due to the absence of caffeine or to other factors.

What happened before was that something would get me down, and I'd seem to stay rather down for some time. When I did feel ( Read more... )

sleep, caffeine, happiness, medicine

Comments 2

blood sugar wendyzski December 19 2003, 13:23:45 UTC

Could be a blood sugar thing. Caffeine dumps a LOT of sugar into your bloodstream at a time, which causes you to feel more alert. However, the converse of this is that you "crash" later when there is no more sugar to be had.

Skipping breakfast can also lead to low blood sugar. If I don't eat within about an hour of getting up, I get really vague and lose focus, and get VERY cranky. This is improved within 15 minutes of eating something. So if both those things affect your mood in the same way, I would guess that.

I have been a caffeine addict for a long time, and though I do step down my levels every once in a while (I'm down to 2 diet cokes a day) I have never been able to drop it entirely. I know it's better for me not to, but the headaches are AWFUL.

::drinking sparkly yuppy-water at the moment::

Re: blood sugar vakkotaur December 19 2003, 13:29:27 UTC

When I backed off, I had to do so slowly. The first time I dropped caffeine, I went to one less can a day every week - and it still hit me a bit. This time it was iced tea, and I ditched the evening tea first, figuring I'd sleep away any problems. I didn't notice anything other than being tired early. I'm not sure, but I might be having fewer headaches now too.