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Caffeine suppresses cerebral grey matter responses to chronic sleep restriction

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Re: Caffeine suppresses cerebral grey matter responses to chronic sleep restriction

#41

I like caffeine. It's fun to drink a cup of tea or coffee once in a while and feel an extra surge of productivity. What I don't like is that it has encouraged the grind of people working far longer and harder than they should for no reason except economic gain which is fundamnetally unsustainable. When people feel tired, they should take a break, and not develop a habit of drinking caffeine every day to keeep going.…

I think people should be able to do what they want with their time. I don’t think people should have to sell their labor for a wage in order to live. I wonder what happens to your opinions about caffeine in a society where owners have little to no leverage over workers, or where the workers are generally also the owners.

I agree, we should structure society so that people don't have to sell their labor to live merely that they choose to do so.

We should give those who choose not to sell their labor the ability to go and live without buying and consuming the labor of others.

Re: Caffeine suppresses cerebral grey matter responses to chronic sleep restriction

#42
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people should be able to do what they want with their time. I don’t think people should have to sell their labor for a wage in order to live. I wonder what happens to your opinions about caffeine in a society where owners have little to no leverage over workers, or where the workers are generally also the owners.

What kind of tea do they serve in the gulag?

I dunno, ask the people who work at Mondragon. https://www.mondragon-corporation.com/en/about-us/

Re: Caffeine suppresses cerebral grey matter responses to chronic sleep restriction

#43
post #30

I love my caffeine. But caffeine is an addictive, highly profitable substance. So advertising it and trying to promote it as somehow having real health benefits is widespread. I would not be surprised if routine consumption of caffeine was at least mildly detrimental to health. I think some drugs have managed to gain a special place in our society . Advertising and lobbying warps our perception of these drugs. I even…

Alcohol reduces functions, caffeine clearly enhances functions. If caffeine was involved in nearly all violent crime like alcohol is, we would think differently of it.

> Alcohol reduces functions, caffeine clearly enhances functions.

In occasional users this might be true, but is it true in regular users? Anecdotally, I hear far more people complaining about being completely unable to function (and I've often recognized that they're perceptibly out of it) until they've had their next cup of coffee than I have heard people talk about getting great productivity gains from it.

I don't use caffeine regularly in part to keep it available for when I really need it, and I have never once felt like I was lower functioning than my coworkers as a result—on the contrary, my energy levels seem to be far more stable throughout the workday.

Re: Caffeine suppresses cerebral grey matter responses to chronic sleep restriction

#44
post #30

I love my caffeine. But caffeine is an addictive, highly profitable substance. So advertising it and trying to promote it as somehow having real health benefits is widespread. I would not be surprised if routine consumption of caffeine was at least mildly detrimental to health. I think some drugs have managed to gain a special place in our society . Advertising and lobbying warps our perception of these drugs. I even…

People do joke about being dangerous without their morning coffee, but I have yet to see a coffee addict breaking into vehicles to score their morning fix. Also I have never had to worry someone is going to mug my loved ones to get some quick cash for a double-double. And have you ever heard of someone who skips important appointments because they stayed out getting high on caffeine instead

Pretending caffeine is as detrimental to our society as e.g. fentanyl is prime intellectual dishonesty.

Re: Caffeine suppresses cerebral grey matter responses to chronic sleep restriction

#45

Anyone with anxiety or sleep issues should reexamine their caffeine usage. Maybe those problems do not stem from caffeine, but maybe they do. I don't know many people that do not consume caffeine regularly, at least once a day - in such cases, you cannot know whether your anxiety, sleep problems, general tiredness, bad moods, ... are or are not caused by one's caffeine consumption. Some people swear by drinking a sho…

What about those of use who may or may not have ADD and have been using caffine to regulate our mood and focus....

I honestly can't tell at this point if the coffee is helping me focus and I have ADD or if I am just lazy(or depressed) and the coffee is helping get me motivated.

Re: Caffeine suppresses cerebral grey matter responses to chronic sleep restriction

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect I am an unusually fast metabolizer, since I can be tipped over into very nasty withdrawal headaches extremely easily, even when my baseline consumption is a couple of smallish coffees in a day. The only way I've found to fix this is to get almost completely off it, which as you might imagine I find very difficult to do, since I have to step down very carefully.

My withdrawals only kick in on the second day of no caffeine. Also, I feel a cup of coffee on the day I drank it and the day after (with no additional caffeine). :D I guess I'm turbo slow. Although I didn't use to be...

For me it can happen in less than 12 hours, which can mean overnight. It's not a great time!

Re: Caffeine suppresses cerebral grey matter responses to chronic sleep restriction

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol reduces functions, caffeine clearly enhances functions. If caffeine was involved in nearly all violent crime like alcohol is, we would think differently of it.

All stimulants enhance some functions to some degree, so that is a poor metric of value. Cocaine, for example, temporarily boosts intelligence, but consuming cocaine is not recommended.

I remember having a look for papers relating to performance on cognitive tasks and caffeine, and not being able to find any high-quality studies that showed an improvement. Could you provide a source?

Cocaine would be interesting too, although I've never searched for papers about it.

Re: Caffeine suppresses cerebral grey matter responses to chronic sleep restriction

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All stimulants enhance some functions to some degree, so that is a poor metric of value. Cocaine, for example, temporarily boosts intelligence, but consuming cocaine is not recommended.

Does cocaine temporarily boost intelligence? I thought it boosted the feeling of being intelligent.

It does. Intelligence is the capacity for learning potential and cocaine boosts the ability to retain and process learned sensory matter, even when sleepy. That is really the greatest appeal of that drug. Again, I strongly do not recommend reliance on any stimulants, especially powerful ones like cocaine.

Re: Caffeine suppresses cerebral grey matter responses to chronic sleep restriction

#49

Anyone with anxiety or sleep issues should reexamine their caffeine usage. Maybe those problems do not stem from caffeine, but maybe they do. I don't know many people that do not consume caffeine regularly, at least once a day - in such cases, you cannot know whether your anxiety, sleep problems, general tiredness, bad moods, ... are or are not caused by one's caffeine consumption. Some people swear by drinking a sho…

Caffeine makes me very sleepy if I drink it mid-day and I do in fact usually fall asleep early.

How much caffeine do you consume regularly? Sounds to me like your body potentially has too much already, and is reacting by making you drowsy. Note that caffeine is also in non-coffee/tea related beverages like sodas (e.g. Coke/Pepsi/...), or sometimes certain pain killers (e.g. migraine pain killers frequently contain something like 50mg of caffeine).

Re: Caffeine suppresses cerebral grey matter responses to chronic sleep restriction

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol reduces functions, caffeine clearly enhances functions. If caffeine was involved in nearly all violent crime like alcohol is, we would think differently of it.

All stimulants enhance some functions to some degree, so that is a poor metric of value. Cocaine, for example, temporarily boosts intelligence, but consuming cocaine is not recommended.

I heard investment bankers rely on it from the 90s. How addictive it is?
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