Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Coffee Stats – Maximize Caffeine Intake and Get to Bed at Night

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 148 posts

Re: Coffee Stats – Maximize Caffeine Intake and Get to Bed at Night

#71

Post by highcountess »

systems_glitch wrote: post #40
delichon wrote: post #36

I had a >300mg caffeine/day energy drink habit for a few of years. It took around six months to get past the additional fatigue after quiting. There seems to be some long term effect on me way beyond the half life. Does everyone else get past the effects of going cold turkey in a matter of hours?

I went cold turkey after developing a facial tic and realizing I was consuming 1000 - 1200 mg of caffeine a day (mostly coffee, French press and canned, with some energy drinks too). I was 100% not aware that caffeine is physically addictive and causes receptor changes in your brain. Aside from withdrawal symptoms (joint aches and pains for me), the fatigue didn't fully go away after several months. What did "fix" it…

It’s minimal, but just FYI; caffeine free coffee still has small amounts of caffeine.

Re: Coffee Stats – Maximize Caffeine Intake and Get to Bed at Night

#72

Post by wnolens »

aantix wrote: post #69

Please take in to account slow vs fast caffeine metabolizer. "CYP1A2 Gene: Fast or Slow Caffeine Metabolizer?" https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/liver-detox-genes-cyp1a2/ This is one of those subjects where people argue past each "I can drink a cup of coffee and sleep like a baby!" vs "One cup of coffee in the morning and my sleep quality is impacted". And neither understands how the other can have a vastly different…

Oh wow, I'm surprised that this is not common knowledge given how common coffee is. I didn't even know it was a thing.

File me under "A cup of coffee feels like a small dose of MDMA"

Re: Coffee Stats – Maximize Caffeine Intake and Get to Bed at Night

#73

Post by toyg »

xpe wrote: post #66

Does anyone have personal experience or an understanding of why sometimes coffee in the afternoon actually results in a feeling of perceived tiredness?

From what I understand (I'm not a scientist), caffeine doesn't "give" you energy, but rather makes your body ignore the tiredness, by turning off some of the machinery that would make you feel tired.

By having coffee in the morning and then in the afternoon, you build a "high" of caffeine that forces most of your "alert systems" to shut down. Once the peak wears off though, your body starts remembering to alert you to tiredness, which by then is often multiplied by the fact that by ignoring tiredness you've pushed your system hard when it was already tired. Hence you might feel like crashing.

On top of that, caffeine de-hydrates, so if you've not had enough water, your body will start to crawl.

On top of that, a lot (most?) people will have sugar with their coffee, and often quite a lot of it. Sugar can cause similar "crashes", particularly in the obese (like me), and obviously this combines with the abovementioned items.

Re: Coffee Stats – Maximize Caffeine Intake and Get to Bed at Night

#74

Post by vren »

xpe wrote: post #66

Does anyone have personal experience or an understanding of why sometimes coffee in the afternoon actually results in a feeling of perceived tiredness?

Are you having coffee with milk? Casein/whey allergies affect a single-digit number of the population and can lead to feelings of sluggishness. Try black/almond/oat/etc.

Re: Coffee Stats – Maximize Caffeine Intake and Get to Bed at Night

#75

Post by toyg »

ectospheno wrote: post #63
systems_glitch wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went cold turkey after developing a facial tic and realizing I was consuming 1000 - 1200 mg of caffeine a day (mostly coffee, French press and canned, with some energy drinks too). I was 100% not aware that caffeine is physically addictive and causes receptor changes in your brain. Aside from withdrawal symptoms (joint aches and pains for me), the fatigue didn't fully go away after several months. What did "fix" it…

My last non-decaf drink was early July. Went from ~1000 mg a day to ~60. Change in sleep was pretty dramatic. I am sleepy every evening. Sleepy during the day just means I’m bored. I wake up feeling more rested. The third day quitting was rough. Other than that it was pretty easy. Now my biggest complaint is finding decaf when I’m out.

> my biggest complaint is finding decaf when I’m out

I've been drinking decaf for a long time (now exclusively so), and this is a real issue sadly. Even when you go to a regular coffeeshop that has it, it's often been roasted and ground aaaaages ago (because of low demand) and then very loosely preserved, which results in drinks that taste bad and are potentially unsafe.

Re: Coffee Stats – Maximize Caffeine Intake and Get to Bed at Night

#76

Post by aantix »

To determine whether you're a slow or fast caffeine metabolizer..

Wait for a sale at Nebula.org. Get your whole genome sequenced. ~$200. Having your whole genome sequenced could have added benefits down the road.

Download the .BAM file. It will be several gigabytes.

Use WSG Extract to generate the 23andMe raw data files.

https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/convert-whole-genome-file/

Connect that data file to Genetic Life Hacks. Take a look at the article on CYP1A2. This will show you whether you're a slow metabolizer or not.

https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/liver-detox-genes-cyp1a2/

The linked data file at GLF never uploads to the server. All analysis is local, client side.

Re: Coffee Stats – Maximize Caffeine Intake and Get to Bed at Night

#77

Post by malfist »

o_nate wrote: post #58
bigiain wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure there's some age related effects too. Over the last ~20 years I've gone from being happily able to drink coffee after dinner, through not being able to drink it after 5pm or so, and now to having the espresso machine automatically shut off at 2:30pm - otherwise my sleep quality plummets. I'm 57 now, I started noticing poor sleep related to late night coffee in my mid 30s. I do got fairly hard earlier in t…

My problem isn't falling asleep, it's staying asleep. Restlessness at night has become more noticeable as I've gotten older. Cutting down on caffeine, especially later in the day, seems to have helped some. I now have one cup of coffee in the morning, and a cup or two of tea in the early afternoon. This is instead of the two cups in the morning and espresso in the afternoon that I used to have before.

Everyone is different, but if you aren't already, and have the time for it, try incorporating more physical exercise into your day. That helped me deal with restlessness at night

Re: Coffee Stats – Maximize Caffeine Intake and Get to Bed at Night

#78

Post by seper8 »

wnolens wrote: post #72
aantix wrote: post #69

Please take in to account slow vs fast caffeine metabolizer. "CYP1A2 Gene: Fast or Slow Caffeine Metabolizer?" https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/liver-detox-genes-cyp1a2/ This is one of those subjects where people argue past each "I can drink a cup of coffee and sleep like a baby!" vs "One cup of coffee in the morning and my sleep quality is impacted". And neither understands how the other can have a vastly different…

Oh wow, I'm surprised that this is not common knowledge given how common coffee is. I didn't even know it was a thing. File me under "A cup of coffee feels like a small dose of MDMA"

Lucky you! LOL. Hope it doesnt come with the nasty comedown :P

Re: Coffee Stats – Maximize Caffeine Intake and Get to Bed at Night

#80

Post by smith7018 »

aantix wrote: post #76

To determine whether you're a slow or fast caffeine metabolizer.. Wait for a sale at Nebula.org. Get your whole genome sequenced. ~$200. Having your whole genome sequenced could have added benefits down the road. Download the .BAM file. It will be several gigabytes. Use WSG Extract to generate the 23andMe raw data files. https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/convert-whole-genome-file/ Connect that data file to Genetic Lif…

Thank you for this, I've wanted to do genetic testing for years but don't want it to be stored on anyone's server. Can you explain how it's not stored on any server? Like, you're downloading the .BAM file from Nebula; doesn't that mean they hold onto the data?
Post reply on HN