caffeine and sleep

[Country4ever]

Hi all,
I'm very sensitive to alot of meds and to caffeine. I use caffeine like a drug.....to give me a few hours of reasonable energy and motivation. As long as my stomach will tolerate it, I have a coke in the mornings (about 8-12 oz). I can tell I don't sleep quite so well the next night. But what's really strange is, if I have a little caffeine in the afternoon, I wake up around 4a.m. in the morning and can't get back to sleep.
I know I should detox from the caffeine, but it has such a good effect on me in other areas (energy, thinking, motivation). Just curious if anyone else has this problem of waking up early the next day from having had caffeine........even if it was early in the day, the day before?

[oceanpearl]

In my younger years I drank 4 to 5 cups of coffee every evening. Now if I have coffee after mid morning I have a miserable time that night;. Even if I am able to go to sleep I still wake up in the wee hours and am unable to go back to sleep.

[Sundown]

I have had to stop caffeine as well. I wake up at 4:30 every single night if I have one cup. I have a heckuva time going back to sleep even if I have tea or coffee early in the morning (thinking that would be enough time to get it out of my system). For now, I drink "Sleepytime" Tea to satisfy my tea craving.

[DreamDiver]

A coke in the morning also provides you with the equivalent of almost 10 teaspoons-ful of sugar. The interesting thing about this sugar is that it's high fructose corn syrup - a modified sugar that does not include natural agents that tell your body when you've had enough like cane or beet sugar. Not only is it cheaper for the soft-drink companies to make coke with the modified corn syrup, it causes you to want more. It is unfortunate that this same corn syrup is in nearly all soft drinks in the US today because it is also responsible for the rise in early-onset diabetes in our children.

If you're going to do caffiene in the morning, get a twenty dollar espresso maker from Target and add a couple teaspoons of cane sugar to your morning cuppa. French roast coffee has less caffiene than mild roast coffees because more of the caffiene is burned off during the roasting process. Personally, I hate french roast because it tastes more like charcoal than coffee. If you prefer a mellower flavor, buy a decaf coffee - the caffiene isn't all gone - just reduced. It's a lot easier on your stomach than a paint stripper soft-drink, and you'll still get a little caffiene to wake you up without the coma-inducing after-effects of high-fructose corn-syrup

[DreamDiver]

In my younger years I drank 4 to 5 cups of coffee every evening. Now if I have coffee after mid morning I have a miserable time that night;. Even if I am able to go to sleep I still wake up in the wee hours and am unable to go back to sleep.

I get a product called Mag Relax (usually store branded at places like whole-foods or earth fare.) It's a combination of powdered Magnesium Carbonate and Citric acid. When you mix it with hot water it fizzes and combines to create Magnesium citrate - easily absorbed by the body. Magnesium is known for its sleep-inducing effects. I mix up a teaspoon in a cup before bed and drink half. If I wake up and can't sleep, I'll drink the rest. In twenty minutes, I'm off to the Land of La. There are no side effects in the morning because it's a mineral the body already needs in quantities we're working with. It also helps with 'Restless Leg Syndrome' and doesn't taste bad either.

[Country4ever]

Hmmmm.....some interesting info. I used to think that I would wake up at 4:30 a.m. because maybe some of the caffeine had a delayed metabolism?? But it sounds like it happens to some of you too.
That's interesting about the corn syrup. I have had trouble with corn syrup in the past several years........giving me an intense hypoglycemic reaction (at least intense symptoms). I also get the hypoglycemic symptoms when I try to just drink a diet coke. I figured I needed the sugar to balance out the caffeine's affects on my adrenalin???
I am so addicted to that one glass of coke. I know it sounds stupid, but I am!! I get up in the morning and that's all I can think about! I would have nothing to live for if I had to give it up. lol! (not really.....but it would be hard).
Decaf coffee just doesn't do it for me.
Regular coffee gives me the worst hypoglycemie reaction ever. And I don't want to add sugar to it (don't like the taste). But I could probably handle a big juicy donut! hahaha Actually, the donut would make me sooooo sleepy.
There's just something perfect about the coke in the morning. I don't get hypoglycemic feelings and I get alot of energy. I do have protein a little later. My stomach is starting to make some rumblings that it doesn't like all that acid. Nothing else seems to work as far as the perfect affect that Coke gives. I'm ashamed........but its true.

I have some magnesium citrate supplements, and they give me diarrhea. I'm thinking that Mag-relax would probably do the same thing. (I have IBS, so I might not have the usual response to it).
Caffeine is such a curious drug. Some people aren't affected much by it, and others are so dependent on it.
If I drink more than than 1 caffeinated beverage a day, I start getting real tired all the time! Figure that one out!

[DreamDiver]

Country4ever,

It sounds to me like you're addicted to HFCS. There's not as much caffiene in a coke as there is in coffee. A cup of black tea has about as much caffeine as a coke. Try black tea instead without the sugar. If you are still jonesing for a coke, it's really the sugar you're addicted to. Worse, it's the evil twin of sugar, high fructose corn syrup. It's best to break that cycle, if you can.

I wake up at 4am and I don't drink caffiene on a regular basis, so you're right, it's probably not related to your cola habit.

Magnesium citrate in the little green bottles from the pharmacy is at a much higher dose. At that concentration, you're talking about a salt laxative like Milk of Magnesia. Your body wants to get rid of it soon, hence the bowel movement. The Mag Relax preparation has no such side effects, and I have bowel problems too, so I should know.

[allergyridden]

I have a lot of spontaneous arousals, so it was suggested I give up caffeine. I had a coke in my hand all day, took the pills to stay awake at work in the afternoon. I gave it up, no problem. I'm a tea drinker, there's one brand I like without it & the caffeine free Coke is good too. However, I do eat chocolate, just not every day, and in moderation.

[Bookbear]

I am something of a coffee nut (well, we have to blame it on SOMEthing, don't we? ), and I am extremely fortunate that, at 59, I can still have a mug before going to bed and not have any ill effects. Decaffeinated coffee almost always tastes vile to me, but, if you are careful and look for water processed decaf, get it in beans not pre-ground, and grind just before making your evening cup, you'll have a reasonably tasty experience. I'd avoid Charbuck's decaf, though.

Water processed decaf doesn't use chemicals to decafinate the beans, just water. IMHO, we already have enough of a chemical load in our bodies, why add yet another set with chemically decaffeinated coffee?

Some good choices would be:
Outland Java Company's Mountain Decaf
Caffe Vita's Mexican Water Process Decaf
Toad Mountain Costa Rican Decaf
Sweet Maria's African Highland WP Decaf

BTW, water process removes just as much caffeine as do the chemical processes.

[DreamStalker]

I am something of a coffee nut (well, we have to blame it on SOMEthing, don't we? ), and I am extremely fortunate that, at 59, I can still have a mug before going to bed and not have any ill effects. Decaffeinated coffee almost always tastes vile to me, but, if you are careful and look for water processed decaf, get it in beans not pre-ground, and grind just before making your evening cup, you'll have a reasonably tasty experience. I'd avoid Charbuck's decaf, though.

Water processed decaf doesn't use chemicals to decafinate the beans, just water. IMHO, we already have enough of a chemical load in our bodies, why add yet another set with chemically decaffeinated coffee?

Some good choices would be:
Outland Java Company's Mountain Decaf
Caffe Vita's Mexican Water Process Decaf
Toad Mountain Costa Rican Decaf
Sweet Maria's African Highland WP Decaf

BTW, water process removes just as much caffeine as do the chemical processes.

So what type of vendors sell these decafs? ... online or typical grocer?

I'm not a coffee nut but my wife is and I would like to get her off the stuff cuz her doctor has told her to cut the caffine but she just can't seem to let it go.

[Bookbear]

Each of those were on line vendors.

http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.others.decafs.html

http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.others.decafs.html

http://www.caffevita.com/shop/index.php ... ucts_id=11

Sorry but Toad Mountain seems to have closed their on line operations. However, Green Mountain has a water process decaf that a friend of mine swears by:
http://www.greenmountaincoffee.com/prdC ... ndDecafSWP

[Suz-E-Q]

Here is a little new info. from nutritional research:

Coffee has some terrific effects on your Liver! They don't know the mechanism yet, but there is a ton of research going o now.

They (respected researchers) found that coffee will decrease inflammation....inflammation is the root cause of just about every disease state in a human being. The magic number is 3 cups of coffee to get the greatest anti-inflammatory impact; after 3 cups the impact actually starts to go in the opposite direction.

One interesting thing "they" found was alcoholics that drank 10 cups of coffee/day did NOT get cirrhosis of the liver....(told my mom this and she said; "well that explains your grandmother!!")

So much still to be learned about Coffee....BUT I don't know if the impact is the same for decaf as reg coffee....I will see if I can find out.

[Country4ever]

Suz-E-Q........does that include decaf coffee too?
I have sort of learned to not pay much attention to what is said on the news about coffee. It seems like one year, its good for you. Then the next year, its bad. Then the next year its good again.
I do occasionally drink decaf coffee......but its sure not as fun as the real stuff!

[ozij]

Dreamstalker:
Once your wife starts "detoxing" for caffeine have her do it very gradually - one cup less every 3 days or so. Dropping caffeine cold turkey can give you terrible (and I mean terrible) headaches. Doing it gradually is fine.

Suzy- that's very interesting, I'll love to see the links when you find them. I love coffee (use a espresso machine to make it). Sometime in my late twenties I discovered the amounts I drank made me jittery. Ever since I drink about 3 cups of "real" coffee in the mornings, and only decaff later on.

And even with only 3 cups, I start winding down gradually 10 days before Yom Kippur.

O.