Tuesday 24 July 2012

Away with you caffeine

I was recently mortified to learn that one of my lifelong addictions ( diet soda ) is actually LOADED with caffeine. I had been drinking large amounts of pepsi max for years but recently I have noticed that my consumption of this stuff had gone to ever new dizzy heights, I would easily go through 5 cans per day, or 2 litre bottles. Im disgusted with myself.

1 can of pepsi max has a reported almost 70mg of caffeine!!!! In conjunction with the other stuff I was drinking I now realise I must of been getting easily over 500mg caffeine per day. Suffice to say, my sleep was getting worse and worse and worse. Last week I decided enough was enough and I needed to take drastic action and go cold turkey on caffeine to help improve my sleep. I couldnt function anymore, I do not exsist without a good nights sleep.

Anyday where the sleep is bad is a completely wasted and substracted day from your lifespan, because without a good nights sleep I literally become moribund. There are some interesting things in the wikipedia page on caffeine, its consumed by like 90% of people, and over 250mg you can start to develop symptoms of something they call caffeinism, rofl thats NOTHING compared to what I was consuming. IT makes me wonder now how all these problems people have in society with bad sleep may be atleast partially the result of caffeine intoxication.

I have been caffeine free for 8 days now, first 2 days were quite easy, days 3-5 I had very very bad headaches and on day 6 I was literally bed confined for 24hrs with the worse head ache ive ever had. However my sleep has been gradually improving. I have been dreaming more and feeling a bit more freshed upon waking. In short, I can LIVE. Despite my shift working already fucking up my sleep, the caffeine intoxication on top of this was murdering my brain. I know dreaming is linked with REM sleep, so Im sure ive been getting more REM sleep while off the caffeine.

Infact REM sleep is oh so important. I know this from my experience with zopiclone which I use to help cope with my shift work. I only take zopiclone once every 8 days to avoid addiction and dependence, but tbh thats all I need. Anyway the science literature has done extensive work on zopiclone and one of the things it does is give you almost no REM sleep and instead you get all slow-wave sleep.

I know exactly what this feels like because after zopiclone I wake up with my body feeling highly refreshed and ready to go, but my brain and cognitive acts exactly like I didnt get any sleep at all. Now with the caffeine out I can just feel im getting more REM sleep because the front of my brain doesnt feel heavy in the mornings.

Ive gone cold turkey on caffeine and now I swear to god im never going to consume it ever again. ( except from chocolate HAHA ),

No more diet coke/pepsi, no more coffee. I dont need that shit in my veins. All these studies supporting the benefits of caffeine just make me laugh and cringe at the same time. WHAT FUCKING BENEFITS?! I can send my poor brain into over drive, get less sleep, consume more caffeine, go more into over-drive, just so I can function "normally"?! How about just getting a good nights sleep and functioning normally that way?!?! I dont need plant insecticides to work normally thanks. Which brings me to the next point....

Why do manufacturers put caffeine in their products anyway?

There is only one answer, and thats because it increases sales. How does it increase sales? Because its addictive. I speak from experience, remember paragraph 1 above ^^ . Although caffeine is quite an easy addiction to give up, you wont ever realize it until your sleep is so shit that your on your knee's begging for release. I even found a review paper on pubmed suggesting that caffeine may worsen glucose tolerance and aggravate hepatic glucose production.

That does it!, away with you caffeine!


3 comments:

  1. I consider soda to be poison. The acidity alone is enough to disrupt your system.
    The sweetener actually is a poison. Caffeine is the least problem I have with soda. Diet Pepsi had Caused me to sleep poorly for years. Good luck.

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  2. I envy that it took so long for w/d. I feel w/d in 24 hrs.

    The best I can do with caffeine is scowl at it angrily from across the room before weakening my stance and submitting to consume it. I can limit myself to one serving per day but if i take less than about 200mg I will feel w/d symptoms, and life is too short to worry about caffeine addiction and suffer w/ds. I don't want to w/d during my precious days off, and my job is too hard to do it while in caffeine w/d, so it's like I"m screwed. I'll have to take a month off if I ever want to detox, haaaa.

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  3. Why? Sales. Period. Same reason they put salt in it. Salt makes you thirsty. Jerks. I am a complete and hopeless diet soda addict, but I did at least buy a Soda Stream for less salt. Plus I drink more water now that I can fizz it like mineral water. I often wonder if thats.as healthy as plain water. Very much admire your resolve and determination.

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