Off Topic - Caffeine Withdrawal

[joeljjk11]

So I used to drink quite a bit of coffee, I would say about 48 to 50 oz a day most days each week. It was causing me to feel anxious and irritable so I decided to cut back significantly about two weeks ago, now I am drinking about 16 oz a day. Has anyone gone through caffeine withdrawal? I am having a pretty hard time with it, and I find it difficult to think clearly when I am at work. It has helped the quality of my sleep though when I use my ASV machine and I am almost always sleeping through the night without waking up.

[linuxman]

Just keep at it. I've been pretty caffeine addicted at times (tea), and yeah it can be rough to ween yourself off of it. I would recommend you get yourself down to no caffeine at all. For me the difference between a little bit, and zero caffeine was quite a bit. Your awakness level will start to feel much more even during the day, and that need to drink something caffeinated to "feel normal" will go away as well. Your body has to adjust to the new normal. It takes time - but it's worth it, in my opinion.

If you can't stop drinking coffee, per se, then switch to de-caf.

[Julie]

Expect headaches... they should be withdrawal ones, not OSA related.

[Sheriff Buford]

I did caffeine withdraw years ago when I did the Adkins diet. It certainly was not fun. The good thing is that it probably took me a week thru a week and a half to get thru. I do remember feeling better being caffeine-free.
Sheriff

[Cardsfan]

Decaf. coffee and decaf tea still have some caffeine in them. So be careful with that. The only caffeine free tea is herbal tea, made with no tea, just herbs. I don't drink coffee, so I don't know if there is any zero caffeine coffee.

[49er]

Decaf. coffee and decaf tea still have some caffeine in them. So be careful with that. The only caffeine free tea is herbal tea, made with no tea, just herbs. I don't drink coffee, so I don't know if there is any zero caffeine coffee.

According to the instant decaf I drink, it is 99.7% caffeine free. It doesn't specify for how much so to be cautious, I use 1/2 teaspoon and it seems to have zero effects.

But I agree you have to make sure the decaf coffee you are drinking doesn't have any caffeine in it.

49er

[chunkyfrog]

Chocolate also has caffeine--especially dark chocolate.
I can live without coffee; but if I can't have chocolate, bad things happen.

[Okie bipap]

Even worse things will happen if you take my chocolate from me.

[SewTired]

My late Dad went through caffeine withdrawal and it took about 3 weeks. The fact that you are still drinking SOME coffee helps - going cold turkey for people who are sensitive seems to do all sorts of stuff. I have never had caffeine withdrawal, although I had to cut back on coffee drinking due to the silent acid reflux. I quit coffee for a year on a doctor's insistence that it would eliminate the acid reflux. It didn't, so I just drink a reduced amount.

Honestly, I was quite surprised how much caffeine was in different chocolates! Very often more than tea! But then I looked at the quantity needed and ok...I can't think when I'd eat a whole cup of chocolate chips.

[FishLips]

I love good coffee but don't like dependence on caffeine. When I feel it, I'll ease it down with progressively lighter teas over a month's time - black to green to white. I don't get headaches doing that.

My worst withdrawal experience was when I stopped drinking caffeine after noon. That was well worth it though.

[MrGrumpy]

Its common (very common) for sleep apnea sufferers and CPAP users to be heavy caffeine users. I learned this a long time ago. Caffeine is actually quite a potent stimulant. Also, narcoleptics sometimes are heavy caffeine users.

How to deal with it? The answer IMO, "it depends." If your sleep apnea is well treated with CPAP or other treatment and you dont feel fatigued during the day, common sense says its probably wise to try to cut back on it.

On the other hand, does it really matter that you use a lot of caffeine? Unless you are doing something extreme like popping no doze pills on a regular basis (caffeine pills OTC), I say "not really."

Some sleep doctors, the ones who dont seem to me to be as focused on treating sleep apnea as much as other stuff like "sleep hygiene," have come across to me as somewhat overly concerned about caffeine use. My personal opinion is the whole concept of "sleep hygiene" is a crock. My attitude is "treat the underlying obstructive sleep apnea well and all the other crap basically takes care of itself, on its own." It might take some time, but once that apnea is treated well, your body and mind begin the recovery and rebuilding process. Sometimes that can be mere months, other times it might take a year or a little more if youve had really long standing sleep apnea.

I had AWFUL sleep hygiene before I was put on CPAP back in 2007. Used too much caffeine, drank too many diet sodas (lot of caffeine in diet sodas), stayed up real late and slept late, although I oftentimes woke up repeatedly and found it hard to sleep real late because of the symptoms of untreated apnea...sore dry throat in the morning, morning headaches, just all sorts of symptoms from untreated sleep apnea.

Once on CPAP, my sleep hygiene cleared up over the time period of maybe a year. Except for one thing. I still had real high caffeine intake. I went to a new sleep medicine doctor, he was not a pulmonary specialist sleep doc he was a psychiatrist turned sleep doc. I wanted him to look at my depression/anxiety meds for me and if possible, adjust them for me to accomodate the improvements I'd made under CPAP the previous year. He did not do that, he would not encroach on my shrink. Although he did tell me "if possible, reduce my klonopin use but only if it was possible" meaning "if your anxiety level can take a klonopin reduction."

The thing he focused on was something that took me by surprise. He focused on my caffeine intake. He trashed it. Told me caffeine was awful, to get off of it, it blocks slow wave sleep which is true, but frankly I dont care I love my caffeine. All stimulants block slow wave sleep, caffeine is a stimulant. But its not Ritalin or other amphetamine. Its not Provigil. These things REALLY mess with your slow wave sleep.

My attitude is, "dont sweat it." If you can get off the caffeine, great. If you cant, dont worry about it. Caffeine is a part of Western culture, its nothing thats going to hurt you.

[Jack Burton]

Just finished the first cup of the day and its wonderful.

[Woody]

I did it in stages mixing decaff and regular coffee 50/50 for a week. Then the next
week I used ~ 25 % regular and 75% decaff then the 3rd week about 12% regular and
88% decaff. Then just decaff. That way I never had that headache.

[Physician]

Just finished the first cup of the day and its wonderful.

Yes. I purposefully drink two cups a day a day because of the many studies demonstrating the probable health benefits of coffee.

Just because withdrawal from coffee can take days to weeks, is a separate issue from the health benefits. This is assuming the person does not have specific caffeine side effects, such as arrhythmias, peptic acid disease, tremors, etc. which should signal the need for a reduction or elimination of coffee consumption.

[Janknitz]

I do an annual caffeine withdrawal in the early fall before the Jewish High Holy days because otherwise it's very hard to get through the Yom Kippur fast which entails NOTHING passing the lips for about 26 hours, not even a drop of water. When I don't do the withdrawal, I get a headache that makes me think my head is going to explode and I once saw someone faint and have a seizure from caffeine withdrawal.

I'm not a huge caffeine drinker in the first place. I have my big cup which is about 16 oz of coffee every morning, and that's pretty much it. I start about 1 month before the holiday, halving the cup of regular coffee with half decaf. A week later I do 1/4 regular and 3/4 decaf, and then at least 10 days before I stop caffeine altogether. I'm really a slug in the morning, so this is hard, and I never quite feel fully on my game.

The fasting part is pretty easy for me, sans headache, and nothing is better than that first real cup of coffee the morning after.