Magic beans.
Earlier this month I decided to go without coffee for 30 days. I’ve done a number of 30-day experiments over the last few years, including giving up booze, sugar, web-surfing, video games, and even artificial light. 30 days is a good amount of time to break old habits and establish new ones, or at least to reset your physiology and brain to a new set of stimuli. Coffee was the only substance I hadn’t tried to give up. In the interest of facing my fears, I decided to give up my favorite morning brew.
I also wanted to see if giving up coffee would alter my sleep cycle (sleeping deeper, and longer without waking), and/or affect my ability to concentrate and work on difficult tasks for long periods of time. Lately I had been feeling that my mental wheels were spinning without the gears being fully engaged.
I did a one-day taper (only 1 cup in the morning, as opposed to my usual two cups in the morning and a cup in the afternoon), and then switched to only tea and dark chocolate. At some point I may attempt a no-caffeine experiment, but that wasn’t the point of this experiment.
Physical withdrawal took about 5 days, with effects as follows: