For some, it’s nothing. Caffeine isn’t an issue for everyone but I do believe that everyone needs to know about the impacts of caffeine, specifically when it’s taken in too high a quantity.
If you’re here, I don’t feel like I have to express just how wild things are in the world right now. How fast, how much, we’re all running all the time. Hopped up on caffeine, sugar, nicotine, alcohol, and who knows what else. I would venture to believe that you haven’t been at a baseline in a long time - a state of having nothing but food, whole, clean food in your system and nothing else. No stimulants, suppressants, nothing. What would that feel like?
We won’t go into detail about how those other things most of us regularly put in our system affect us, but we will talk about caffeine.
What Tired Feels Like
At the atomic level, caffeine enters the system and blocks receptors in your brain that would normally signal to the rest of your system that you’re tired and need rest. Instead, caffeine enters and blocks those making you never feel truly tired. Yes, of course, you *are* still tired - your body is, your brain is, your entire system is tired but with those receptors blocked, caffeine makes your brain believe it’s not and with that, things start to wear down over time.
Though we specialize and sell only decaf coffee, we would never ask you to give up caffeinated coffee if you love it and have a good handle on your caffeine intake. However, most people don’t. They drink multiple cups of regular coffee in the morning (mind you with some added sugar or syrups too, but we won’t get into that today), crash by noon and start the afternoon with an energy drink or a pop (soda, depending on where you’re from), and then end the evening with alcohol because their mind is still racing, their heart rate is up, their blood pressure is high and they can’t seem to “shut off”.
Hmm, I wonder why.
What Great Sleep Can Do For You
We all know that the body is a culmination of systems running together simultaneously. When it comes to changes in the system, some are immediate - like the jolt of caffeine - and some are slow to show. Impacts, both positive and negative, on the systems are compounded over time. For example, if you’re drinking the above amount of caffeine and sugar every day, this will compound into real health issues over a long period of time. Your focus, sleep, appetite, and more will start to deteriorate and by the time you realize you have a whole slew of issues, you won’t be able to identify what caused it because it was a habit done over months that’s the issue. Not something you ate yesterday.
On the flip side, they can also compound in the positive. When you introduce decaf into your morning routine, you likely will go through a week or two of withdrawals - this happens really only if you give up or swap out the other forms of caffeine in your daily routine as well. This can include headaches, tiredness (catching up from the receptors being blocked for who knows how long), trouble sleeping and more. After that time has passed, one of the most common things we hear for noticeable changes is with people's sleep. Caffeine can stay in your system anywhere from 8-12 hours after being ingested - so even your earliest cup of coffee might still be in your system by the time you lay down to sleep. When you swap to decaf, you get 95-99% less caffeine in that morning mug and it’s likely gone from your system much sooner making bedtime more enjoyable.
Now, back to the compounding effects. When you make one swap, decaf in the morning, your sleep will change within a few days or up to a few weeks. If you’re aware of your sleeping habits (or lack of sleep in general) you’ll notice one of these mornings where you fell asleep fast, stayed asleep more deeply, and woke up more rested than normal. This is the start of a really positive compounding change. If you sleep better, you’re more productive, if you’re more productive, you’ve got more time to spend doing what you really like. When you spend more time doing what you really like - with natural energy and focus, you’ll be happier and so much more enjoyable to be around as well.
Impacts of Decaf on Anxiety Levels
I mentioned in my post about the ten benefits of switching to decaf about thinking I was ‘just an anxious or nervous person’. Believing that was ‘just the way I am’ and not even thinking for a second that might not be true or may be entirely self-fulfilling. I won’t come out and say I don’t get nervous when meeting new people or speaking in groups but the experience I was having was fueled almost entirely by my reaction to caffeine.
We aren’t here to make medical claims but research and personal experiences from decaf drinkers makes it pretty clear that by removing the thing that gets your heart racings, your mind racing, and your hands shaking is profoundly impactful on one’s anxiety and stress levels. Shocker, right? Most people don’t realize that the caffeine they’re ingesting through coffee, pop, and energy drinks - at those levels - is ramping up any already present fears, anxieties, worries, or stressors and making your interactions more stressful, your work more sporadic, and your mind more erratic. Again, we are not saying that switching to decaf will make your anxiety go away, but we are saying that it will significantly reduce the effect it has when it is present. The low amount of caffeine in our coffee doesn’t exacerbate your anxiety like regular caffeinated beverages would. In fact, we venture to believe that by drinking out decaf and adopting some slow living principles and routines into your life, drinking our coffee will actually make you feel calmer, more centered, and more in control of your day, not the other way around.
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Cheers,
Haddie
