I need a bomb

[andrewducker]

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that 80-90% of people in the USA drink caffeine every day.

I mostly cut it out of my diet a while back, and find that I sleep better and am happier since then, but I haven't been a major user since I realised it was taking three cups of coffee to get me going in the morning and quit overnight (the headache lasted about four days).

[Poll #1379482]

Comments

[andrewducker]

I do still drink it occasionally - if it's getting towards midnight and I'm flagging and the club is open for another two hours, for instance...

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

It's in the drinks I like (mostly tea, occasionally coffee), and the drinks I like keep me going during the day - so a bit of both.

[sageautumn.livejournal.com]

Same here.

I like tea (iced, sweet) and I'll also have a cup of coffee some mornings.

[yalovetz]

I usually have a cup of coffee in the mornings because I like the taste and am not aware of using it to wake me up. I wake up just fine on mornings when I choose not to drink coffee, and generally use either exercise or a shower as my definite wake up techniques.

I try to avoid changing my caffeine intake (having more than one caffeinated drink a day, or missing my daily caffeinated drink) as that can trigger migraines.

[kashandara.livejournal.com]

See, I had exactly the same reaction, a can of irn bru or coke with my lunch that missing triggered a migraine, and my solution was to give up caffeine as close to completely as I could. It's interesting how different folks can have exactly the opposite solutions to the same problem. =)

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I use it (in the form of diet cola, appallingly enough) because the kids sleep badly and I simply can't get through the day without it. I know it's an unhealthy substance dependence, but I feel it's necessary right now. I'll quit (or cut back to non-dependent levels) when I'm getting more and better sleep.

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

I was a heavy coffee drinker, then after working for a couple of years running internet cafes inside Costas* my body rejected the caffiene.
So I stopped drinking 'full fat' coffee in 2001 and stuck to decafs. Unfortunatly it wasn't the caffiene. The decaf coffee was dropped a few years later.

Now I'm on normal tea for my first cup, decaf tea the rest of the day, unless I'm in a cafe/pub then normal tea is restored.

*(One Costa manager banned us from unlimited free coffees: "I didn't realise you computer geeks dranks so much coffee")

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

I avoid it almost entirely. I really like coke, so sometimes I have a sip of someone else's.

It does Bad Things to me.

[andrewducker]

I assume that diet/caffeine free coke still does Bad Things to you? Or that such abominations are not to be tolerated?

[davidcook.livejournal.com]

I generally don't drink tea or coffee, but I start the day with Coke, and often have it at lunch-time too. Also, there's caffeine in chocolate, and I eat rather a lot of that :-)

[cybik.livejournal.com]

I drink tea almost every day - but the way I have tea it's barely got any tea in it, let alone caffeine, so I really can't count that. I rarely drink coffee (usually only while bored in Dumfries, which happens maybe a couple of times a month) and seem to have massively cut down on caffeinated soft drinks (partly on purpose, partly because it's just worked out that way..).

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

I drink diet coke, coke zero and pepsi max at a rate of 1, possibly 2 cans a day. I drink coffee approximately once a week. I occasionally get caffeine headaches if I cut it out, but it doesn't actually do anything to me in terms of sleepiness/wakefulness. If I "overdose" on it then I get twitches, which are a symptom of stress or over-tiredness for me. I'd happily drink the caffeine free versions of cola if they were easier to come by. I prefer the taste slightly to other fizzy drinks, and I tend not to like the full sugar versions of pop, so the easily accessible stuff pretty much defaults to those I listed.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I have a cup of tea every morning and a can of coke about once a month. Anything more than that wrecks me. I love the taste of coffee but I just can't drink it.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to be allergic to it.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

I try to only have one coffee a day - but only Real coffee and a very large one as I like it strong and black. I do however drink a wad of Dit Coke which is heavily caffeinated, but it doesn't seem to affect my sleeping patterns

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Actually, I needed an option you didn't have - "once or twice a day" - I try to limit myself to two cups of coffee, though often back-to-back after lunch.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Tea and lots of it. I'm not a daily coffee drinker (weird allergy) although I'll sometimes have a special one every few weeks.

I used to drink a lot of diet coke, but now it's an occasional thing and in certain circumstances.

[endless-psych.livejournal.com]

Asides from the occassional medicinal irn bru, cups of tea (once in a blue moon) and whatever trace amounts there are in chocolate and the like. None, nada, zip.

Cigarettes and alcohol are enough vice for me. (and I've quit the fags)

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Coffee. One cup first-thing in the morning as a perk-me-up, and usually one or two at my desk at work.

-- Steve overdid it yesterday, though, and didn't nod off until about six hours ago. (Grump.)

[avatar.livejournal.com]

If you'd asked me 3 months ago, I'd be a Never/I avoid caffeine.

[ias.livejournal.com]

I drink three,sometimes four, mugs of tea a day. Once or twice a week I might have a coffee instead of one of the teas but usually if I have coffee at home it is (weak) decaf, or have decaf, half caf.

I did overdo my caffeine intake when an au pair in Italy and had what can only be describes as the shakes for a couple of days. Ever since I have been rather sensitive to coffee so can't really have more than a couple of cups at day at the very most.

During pregnancy I tend to be very sensitive to caffeine (both tea and coffee) which is why I discovered Dowe Egberts decaff isn't bad. however I have yet to find a decaf tea which tastes at all nice.

As for whether I use caffeine to wake up: rarely. Sometimes on long journeys I want to stop for tea/coffee and chocolate but I think it is the break and chocolate which work better than the caffeine alone. I'll even have a cup of tea at bedtime sometimes and it never affects my sleep. But mostly caffeine is just another mechanism for sugar delivery: when the garklet was v. small and I was still on mat leave, nmg would bring me a cup of tea in bed and would always be able to gauge how bad a night I'd had depending on whether I asked for a spoon, spoon and a half or two spoons of sugar in my tea.

[andrewducker]

Apparently "Caffeine's half-life is approximately 3–4 hours. In women taking oral contraceptives this is increased to 5–10 hours,and in pregnant women the half-life is roughly 9–11 hours."

[captainlucy.livejournal.com]

I like tea.

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

Caffeine doesn't seem to wake me up, and in fact if I drink strong coffee early in the morning my stomach dislikes it. But I do like the taste, and I tend to have 3 or 4 cups a day, although if I go without for a few days I don't get headaches or anything.

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

I drink Coca-cola, usually in the morning because I am, tragically, allergic to orange juice and I like the slightly more acidic nature of Coke compared to Pepsi. Also, I grew up in Atlanta which is the corporate headquarters of Coca Cola so, basically, Pepsi is an evil Northern machine. *laugh*

However, I don't drink coffee. The few times I go and convince myself that an ice coffee would be great, I wind up rather ill. The caffiene and the sugar and the cream all combine to make me juttery and sick to my stomach. I drink herbal teas predominantly.

My mother's family is all LDS - and caffiene is prohibited. So I didn't drink any for years and years and years. I don't feel any great dependence on it, even when I don't have a Coke in the morning.

I like water the best, I think, of any beverage.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

How many of the people who just happen to like the taste of caffeinated drinks also buy Playboy for the articles?

[andrewducker]

You might say that, but I couldn't possibly comment :->

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

I recently cut back from huge amounts of coffee in the morning to huge amounts of tea in the morning (significantly less caffeine), to smaller amounts of tea in the morning.

Now I typically drink 2 cups of tea a day, *or* 1 cup of coffee. I am trying to avoid becoming overly dependent. Fortunately I don't have a bad problem with migraines.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

After about 2 days my caffeine capacity is limitless and it does not in any way keep me awake or liven me up at all. I can have 3 double espressos at 10 pm and go straight to sleep. Of course if I get into caffeine abuse then quit, for a few days I feel alseep all the time, so clearly *some* sort of adaption goes on.

It does make me sweat a bit and make muscle cramps much more likely.

IIRC it kicks your adrenals to 'empty the tank' a bit quicker - and people vary as to how big a 'tank' they have. Think mine is really small...

I wish it did work....

[andrewducker]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine#Mechanism_of_action

Prevents reuptake of epinephrine/amphetamines and counterats adenosine. Doesn't seem to act on adrenaline at all.

[vereybowring.livejournal.com]

I drink much tea and always have.
Cut it out for a while to see if it would help with my insomnia but it made no difference at all.
This is mainly due to an over-active adrenal gland which makes other drugs have to work so much harder to give me any change (less than handy considering I'm on medication at the moment).
Went back to tea/coffee and again no discernible difference mentally or physically, it just doesn't affect me.