It was almost a running joke among my coworkers that I’d sooner than later die of a heart attack due to a caffeine overdose. Apparently my body needs at least 8 hours of sleep to function properly, if not more – at least so I thought. Since getting 8 hours of sleep would require me to either cut down on working out or go to bed right after eating, and neither of those sound like very good options.

As it always is with substances, resistance builds up, so on bad days I’d need 3 cans of energy drinks just to remain functional (and still far from optimal). I got fed up with that eventually (and judging from the signals, my body too), and I decided to go no-caffeine on my birthday. I didn’t decide how long I’d keep it up, but the bare minimum is a month.

The first few days were hell. The nonstop headache was driving me nuts, but surprisingly (or not) I wasn’t feeling any more weary or sleepy than with a can of Monster in me. And once I got some decent sleep on the first weekend after, even the headache went away.

It’s amusing that quite apparently gulping down all that caffeine made absolutely no difference to how sleepy or wake I feel. It definitely had some effects on my body, but not the mental freshness I sought. I’d still doze off when I’d been trying to focus and just lie staring at the ceiling when I’d want a rest.

It’ll take some fine experimenting to figure out exactly how and when is caffeine actually effective, and use it only then.