Caffeine Free Day 5 Through Day Day 11

Waking up on the morning of day 5 was really hard. I woke up 7 times in the night.  While sleeping on the twin bed in one of the foster kid rooms was better than the couch, it was not nearly as comfortable as the bed I normally sleep in.  Besides, sleeping alone seems weird to me after being married for 12 years. I ended up getting out of bed about a half an hour later than I should have.  I was awake and alert over the course of the day. No more headaches and I didn't get the shaky hands that I have read about in some of the reading that I have done. We ended up going to bed at about 11 that night.  It was Friday. Best part was that my wife was starting to feel better, so I slept in our bed that night.  One more variable removed.

Got up at about 8 on the morning of Day 6. I think I only woke up once or twice.  We didn't have a very productive day with my wife feeling under the weather.  Watched movies most of the day.  I did do some housework, so the day wasn't a total loss.  We ended up going to bed at about 11 that night also. I don't remember waking up at all that night.

Day 7 was about the same as day 6. Up at 8, watched movies most of the day.  Felt pretty guilty being that lazy. I did go to bed earlier that night though. I was in bed by about 10:30.  Slept through for the second night in a row.

Day 8 was pretty routine for a Monday. 4 am felt like it came too early and it was a really busy day at work.  A quick sidebar, I hear a lot of people use expressions like "I have to go to work." I stopped using that a long time ago. Losing a job with little warning and going over a year without any work changes your perspective on things like that.  My attitude about going to work is more along the lines of "I get to go to work." One little change of word makes a huge difference. I stayed up way too late for a Monday night and was in bed by 11.

Day 9 made me regret going to bed so late. I came to the realization that i live a lot of my life on a similar schedule as my friends on the East Coast. My 4 am is the same time as their 7. and I work from 9 until 7:30 East Coast time.  Difference is that I go to be at about 1 am East Coast time.  Think that may be a clue to my problems.  Still no headaches or tremors. I was in bed at 11 again that night.  You would think I would learn by now.

Day 10 was my wall.  I ended up getting up closer to 4:30 than 4 again this morning and the day was pretty uneventful as rest goes.  The big difference was in the evening when I got home.  I could not keep my eyes open.  I went to bed at 8 and was asleep almost instantly. I only woke up when my wife came to bed.

This morning, Day 11, was a very different feeling kind of day. I actually felt pretty good getting up. Better than I have in a long time.  Still haven't had any caffeine in this time. and I really haven't felt like I needed it. I am writing this post at about 9 pm.  Usually, I am ready to go to bed by now. I am still planning on going to be no later than 10 tonight. I wonder if I am on to something here.

Photo: One of the Coffee Stations at my office.

Caffeine Free Day 4

I got up at about 4:15 on the morning of day 4. I was a little rushed to get out the door on time. I woke up about 5 times in the night.  I think some of it was from sleeping a room that I am not used to and a different bed.  At nearly 6 foot 5, I am not really a good fit for a twin bed. All in all, it was better than sleeping on the couch.
I was feeling tired in the late afternoon and looking back on it, I was more irritable than I should have been in that evening.
Someone asked me today if my experiment is working so far.  I can honestly say that I am not sure.  There has been nothing routine about my week.  I have noticed that the idea that coffee gets my day going is not accurate. I have not seen any benefit to drinking coffee that water has not been able to accomplish. Today was also the second straight day without a headache.  I ended up getting to bed at about 11.  I am looking forward to my wife feeling better. She has been miserable.

Caffeine Free Day 3

One of the benefits of being a foster parent is that there is never a shortage of beds. We don't have any little ones in the house a the moment. With my wife sick in bed, I am trying to give her the best chance to recover. I woke up at least 3 times in the night that I can remember. Main thought running through my mind was that I was going to oversleep my alarm on my phone. I got up at about 4:15. My back was killing me after night two on the couch. I have a permanent back injury from being hit by a drunk driver a few years ago. I am not disabled. Some days are just bad back days and this was one of those mornings.

I had a little trouble focusing when I first got to work, but, that started to clear up as I moved around more and drank some water. I feel like I functioned alright as the day went on. I was ready for bed at about 9, but, didn't end up going to bed until about 10. Kindle was off and my eyes were shut by 10:30.

Main thing I changed was I used one of the twin beds that we have for our older foster placements. I haven't slept on a bed that small since I was a kid living in California. The hope is that sleeping in a bed will be more restful than sleeping on the couch. Stay tuned.

Photo: The actually bed I am using for now. They are not as cool as my Star Wars sheets I had as a kid.

Caffeine Free Day 2

I was a little slow getting up at the beginning of day 2. I am not sure if it was from sleeping on the couch or the caffeine being purged from me. Did OK over the course of the work day. Headache kicked in at 2:30 again. I took some pain meds to try to compensate. Headache came back at about 7. Stronger than on day 1. I started to fall asleep in my chair while watching Deadliest Catch. That is the biggest indicator that something is wrong that I can think of. Spend a second night on the couch and went to sleep at about 10:30.

Personal Sleep Study Kickoff and Caffeine Free Day 1

I have had a difficult time sleeping. This has been going on for some time. I get between 4 and 6 hours of sleep per night. There are some people who can get by on that and I have been trying to for some time. I am typically up at 4 am. No, that is not a typo. I work about 10 hours a day and try to be in bed by 10. Sometime though, midnight seems to happen more often than 10.

Recently, I have not been able to stay asleep. Falling asleep is not a problem. My wife tells me that I am fall asleep before my head hits the pillow. I wake up about 5 times a night. I also usually wake up more worn out than I felt when I went to sleep.

Medical science and most horror movies with a driven, mad scientist tells us that it is usually not a good idea for a person to experiment on themselves. The experiment that I am doing I think is a reasonable exception. I have decided to eliminate caffeine from my diet. That means no coffee or anything that I know has caffeine in it. I already do not drink soda, so that is not an issue. I have eliminated it as of April 9. I am going to try it for at least a month and see how it goes.

Follow along. Let see what happens.

What I have done in the past is make coffee for myself at home before heading out to work in the morning. I use my Keurig and set it to make the biggest cup that it will produce. I don't actually start drinking it until I get to the office at 6. It is gone by the end of my first meeting at 6:45. After that, I refill my coffee mug with the company issue mud. That will usually be gone by 8:30 and I have water for the rest of the day.

Day 1

Had water this morning instead of coffee. I already drink water most of the time, so this will not be a a big shock. I didn't feel very different that I did on a normal coffee work morning. The only main difference that I noticed is that I developed a headache at about 2:30 that afternoon. From what I have read about caffeine withdrawals, headaches are common for the first 5 days or so after caffeine intake ceases. I also had a kiddo in the house that acted like the existence of the universe depended on her talking without stopping. I was asleep by 10:30. My wife came down with the flu, so I slept on the couch. I need her to get better.

Image: Caffeine Molecule. Source, Wikipedia