# What About Caffeine?



## imp (Nov 6, 2015)

Folks who experience ill-effects from caffeine-containing foods, is it real common? Is it real? Any psychological component: think it will cause adverse effects, then it will.

My wife absolutely cannot fall fall asleep until 3, 4 hours after retiring at her usual time, if the slightest bit of caffeine has been had, as late as noon. I believe that 10 hours later, the caffeine is gone, not sure though.

Though the effect is pretty certain, sometimes she'll splurge and have chocolate in the evening, and fall asleep normally. Easy for me to be questioning, I can drink down a whole 2-liter bottle of Pepsi, and fall asleep in 5 minutes. Unexplainable, as far as I can tell. 

How many have similar effects?   imp


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## Cookie (Nov 6, 2015)

Our society is founded on caffeine, especially coffee.  Without coffee and tea we would have nothing, nothing!

Before the advent of tea and coffee, people drank hot water and milk spiked with a bit of honey.  They were considered the dark ages.


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## imp (Nov 6, 2015)

Looking for info on it's effects, Cookie: I just wonder........imp


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## Cookie (Nov 6, 2015)

I'm sensitive to caffeine, especially can't have it in the afternoons or can't sleep.  I need it in the morning though to wake up.


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## imp (Nov 6, 2015)

So, aside from inability to fall asleep, you can actually feel an "awakening" or stimulating effect?    imp


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## Warrigal (Nov 6, 2015)

If I can't sleep during the night I get up and have a cup of coffee.


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## jujube (Nov 6, 2015)

Caffeine after five p.m. will keep me up.   I really try to hold my caffeine consumption down to practically nothing because of what it does to my heartbeat, but about once a week I indulge in a fully-loaded Coke.  It's worth it.


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## imp (Nov 6, 2015)

Warrigal said:


> If I can't sleep during the night I get up and have a cup of coffee.



Pshaw! You, of course, (as well as I!) would be the exception to the "stimulant" rule, eh? Getting coffee, though, might disturb my wife, so I take a few glugs of distilled water from a gallon jug.   imp


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## NancyNGA (Nov 6, 2015)

Imp, caffeine doesn't seem to bother my sleeping, either.  I'm with Warrigal, I can get up in the middle of the night and have a cup of regular coffee or tea and go right back to sleep.

But it seems to intensify the effects of blood sugar spikes/dips. 

If I eat only simple carbs, including a lot of sugar, on an empty stomach (like pancakes and syrup with regular coffee for breakfast), I get the shakes, cold sweats, and weakness about 20 minutes later.  Lasts for quite a while.   It's a real nuisance when it happens.  A couple cups of tea loaded with sugar in the morning would really do me in.

Add some protein or fat and nothing happens.  By the time bedtime rolls around I've got enough junk food in my gut that nothing affects me.

So I've switched to decaf coffee simply because if it makes that worse, then it probably makes other things worse, too.:shrug:


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## SifuPhil (Nov 6, 2015)

I've consumed tea and coffee since I was a wee tot, so I believe I've built up a tolerance for it. I regularly have 3-4 POTS of coffee a day and it has no effect on my sleeping.

Of course, withdrawal is another story ... if I run out of coffee I go on a rampage.

I'm sure that, like Nancy, it does nasty things to my blood sugar levels, but hey - I don't care. Life without coffee would be a bleak place ...


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## SeaBreeze (Nov 6, 2015)

When I was working, especially the night shift, and drank coffee on my breaks, too much would make me jittery, I never liked the feeling.  Normally I drink one or two cups in the morning and that's all I want for the day.  Lately, I've been housebreaking a puppy, so I get up super early sometimes, walk him outside, feed him, hang out with him in the kitchen for awhile, have my morning coffee and lie down and take a nap when he's quiet and napping....no problemo.  

I don't drink any other beverages with caffeine like soda or energy drinks at all.  The small amounts of chocolate I have now and then don't bother my sleep regardless of what time of night I have them.


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## Butterfly (Nov 6, 2015)

If I drink way too much coffee I feel very "revved up" and jittery, and like my heart is beating too fast.  Funny, though the same amount of caffeine in tea does not have the same effect on me.  BUT, the caffeine in things like Excedrin really bothers me.  Weird.


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## Kadee (Nov 6, 2015)

When we go out dancing I won't drink coffee or tea as I have proved it even after traveling home after the dance  for almost 2 hours,arriving home at 1.30 Am  I can't get to sleep ...at home I don't drink coffee after lunch like your wife imp 
Yet hubby quite often will have a cuppa right  before going to bed and it doesn't bother him


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## Ameriscot (Nov 7, 2015)

If I drink too much coffee I get jittery.  I drink tons of tea.  After dinner I might drink a decaf coffee and herbal or decaf tea.


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## Pappy (Nov 7, 2015)

Funny you should ask. Am reading this and having my coffee. First one today and usually a trip to Dunkin Donuts around 11:00 am. for our second cup. One more in afternoon and that's usually all.


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## chic (Nov 8, 2015)

Fine hotels place a chocolate on your bed pillow because chocolate is supposed to be soporific. I've never tested this theory.

I like hot cocoa in the winter, but do not drink coffee. My tea is green tea and is organic. When I was young, I could drink coffee and tea near bedtime and fall asleep. 

Cosmetics make caffeine based serums to eliminate under eye circles, shadows and bagginess in us older gals. The stuff works great but the caffeine which shrinks the undereye capillaries gives me a headache ( so I have to pass up the opportunity to look 18 again - LOL!) Caffeine also contributes to dehydration which can cause headaches in people with problems in that direction or who are sensitive to caffeine in general.

Just my personal experiences with the stuff. My grandmother, who had serious cardiac issues had to give up drinking coffee for the last 15 years of her life because it dangerously elevated her heartrate.


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