Caffeine is a stimulant that is found in coffee, tea, cola, chocolate and some pain and cold medicines. It’s what gives you that pick-me-up from the morning coffee. It’s also what can have you doing the jitterbug at 2am and not sleep well.
If you take a long time to fall asleep and you consume a lot of caffeinated drinks, then cut back on the amount.
Caffeine affects people to different degrees. I find that if I drink a coffee after 3pm I’ll be awake until 1am or 2am. I also worked with a guy who’s coffee cup was the size of a Volvo and it didn’t bother him at all.
If you take a long time to fall asleep, avoid caffeine in the evening or late in the afternoon and switch to decaf coffee to herbal tea.
If caffeine is affecting your sleep and you don’t sleep well, you may want to stop drinking coffee all together. You may want to cut back slowly over several days because you could go through caffeine withdrawal. If I stop drinking coffee cold turkey I’ll have a headache for 3 or 4 days. I also found that if I had a coffee every morning throughout the week at 6am, then if I slept in Saturday morning, by 6:30am I could feel a headache starting. And drinking a coffee then didn’t help. I had that headache all day.
If you enjoy coffee and it doesn’t affect your sleep, that’s great. Just remember that caffeine is also a diuretic (makes you pee) and that you could become dehydrated during the day if you don’t drink enough water.
