wizard1969

I quit caffeine. Give yourself at least 3-4 weeks to get to normal and the first week is the toughest. If you are having sleep problems, treat them too, as they tend to get you back into caffeine. I gave myself a 12 hour window for bed (7:00pm - 7:00am NO LIGHTS, NO COMPUTER, BLACKOUT WINDOWS) and this straightened my sleep out, but it took some slightly hellish weeks to do so. I found I need an 11 hour window as I awaken in the night for about 2 hours (this is normal), so my actually sleeping is like 9 hours. It was well worth it. Feel much better. Best of luck.

Babs1234

I've been following this thread too !!! I drink more coffee now that i don't drink booze anymore. It's one of the first things in the morning for me. and then I have another cup in the afternoon. I do get headaches if i don't have any and then i will grab candy if that starts in. This is very interesting. thank you for all the in put. I'm going to check out Inka next time I'm in the store.
Babs

Babs1234

ha ha ha ---it sounds like I'm checking out a person.

Nattythreads

So Ive been thinking a lot about this lately. And seeing that list - I get most of those....DURING THE DAY!!!

The fact Im a caffeine addict is no surprise to me. My drugs of choice were almost exclusively uppers. Coffee and vodka worked well. Coffee helped with the Vicodin etc. etc.

I drink - One Venti bold and get a refill every morning

1 Grande Redeye - coffee with shot of espresso plus refill late morning.

Two cups of tea - PG Tips - in the afternoon.

1 Grande Mocha. - most evenings

1 cup of tea before bed.

Plus assorted RedBulls and soda.

Done this for years and years.

This thread has inspired me to start cutting back.

Thanks much.

SereneEdition

Keep up the good work DG - very inspiring. Really interesting that your dreaming ramped up.

DG0409

Goat- Somehow I would have imagined you as a caffeine addict... maybe because of your profession. I'm kind of surprised to hear you've given it up.

Ben- You'll get there. I take it by your join date that you've just gotten off of the alcohol recently? I knew when I quit drinking that I wanted to quit the caffeine too... but it took a few months and now I have. I think I am turning into a health nut, which is quite a switch from my lifestyle not that many months ago.

Wizard- I found a thread on here yesterday with a link to an article about people that wake up for a few hours in the middle of the night like you, it's interesting to me to see the reference to that again today.

Babs- Keep your eyes off of that Inka- he's all mine!! JK.

Natty- I noticed that I seemed to have a certain number of caffeine withdrawal symptoms present on a regular basis as well, and no wonder considering I was always drinking caffeine and thus starting withdrawal afterward.

SE- Thanks for the encouragement.

DG0409

Well, day 6 at one cup a day. The first few days at this were tough, but I'm feeling much better now. I'm hoping cutting back to none at all will be relatively easy at this point. I'll find out soon though.

wizard1969

Quit Cigarettes 1/1/13. Quit Alcohol 4/9/13. Quit Marijuana 7/18/13

Your kicking ass!

DG0409

Thanks wizard.

Well, it's day 7 one cup a day for me. So, I'm on my last cup of coffee for a while (maybe it's a little ironic that I'm drinking a cup of coffee while posting on my quitting caffeine thread). I may eventually drink a little decaf, but for a while I want to eliminate caffeine entirely and decaf still has a little. I admit, my AV is screaming, "NOOOOO!!!" But I think I'll be just fine, probably better.

It's not like coffee is the only drink on the planet- there are a million other things to drink- juice, milk, herbal tea, smoothies, water. OK, well I can only come up with 5 not a million, but I'm sure I'm just not thinking of the other 999,***. Maybe if I'd listed all the different types of juice and tea separately I would have gotten closer.

betterlate

I always thought it was quite strange to enter an AA meeting and see everybody slurping down coffee and smoking cigarettes like there was no tomorrow.

BalinChane

You can do it, much better off without caffeine. When I quit it over ten years ago I was a walking zombie for around a week but that wore off and I don't miss coffee at all now. I quit the day after I was working on soldering some wires in my old guitar, my hands were shaking and it made it tough to do a good job.

DG0409

betterlate- I don't go to AA, but I thought that was strange too, just from hearing about it. I read an article saying that recent research has shown that alcoholics who quit drinking but continue to smoke don't show the same improvements in their brains as those who don't smoke. Hopefully eventually AA and drug/alcohol treatment programs will start to encourage people to quit smoking as well.

Balin- Thanks. I'm encouraged by everybody who has given it up saying that they feel better without it.

DG0409

Day 1 no caffeine at all.

I've got a cup of steaming hot herbal tea at the moment.

SoberHappyHour

Ugh I went 12 days no caffeine then relapsed last night when I went out. I don't drink alcohol anymore so I opted for monsters and broke my caffeine sobriety lol Maybe ill start again today and we can quit together

DG0409

Well I made it through day 1. Felt a bit tired and had a nap. Also had a mild headache, but nothing too bad. Noticed myself feeling a bit grumpy as well, but hard to say exactly if that is from quitting the caffeine or just PAWS or what. I did have particularly vivid dreams again last night.

Onto Day 2 no caffeine.

SHH- How did yesterday go?

sobersovereign

Really inspired by this thread, DG. I know my insane coffee consumption and my booze consumption are closely linked, and intuitively I know if I want to feel 100% I need to ditch them both. I'm 3 days sober now (had a bit of a slip after about 7 days) but I'm so tired of the constant artificial mood altering. I think clearing all the chemicals out of my poor brain and giving it some exercise every day is the best thing I can do for myself. I'm finishing a pot of coffee as we speak and feel weird and fuzzy from it like I always do. It's time to let it go.

sgs

I know someone who has the most amazing collection of non alcoholc beverages at his house. He feels you need to have the best of the good stuff that he can drink--i think it is kind of cool.

DG0409

Sober- I felt the same way about wanting to be done with all of the artificial mood altering.

Day 3 no caffeine here. I slept for like 12 hours last night. But thinking that has to get better soon. At least it's a long weekend here so I could get away with that.

Other than that, feeling good.

oak

I've also gone about three days without caffeine. Not sure which day I last had caffeine (thursday or friday). I'm inspired by people quitting for good.

I keep getting caught by the idea of moderating caffeine- which I would not try with alcohol. Moderating clearly has not worked for me.

Without caffeine, I feel so much calmer. And I sleep better and feel more rested in the mornings.

UnixBer

Here's an article about caffeine & dependence:
Information about caffeine dependence

According to that it looks like caffeine-free people have the best quality sleep.