Last month I decided to stop drinking caffeine: to switch to decaf coffee always, and to drink caffeine-free diet coke, et cetera. Why? Because the last time I took a trip to the east coast, coffee did not wake me up sufficiently.
Throughout my thirties, whenever I would hit the ground in some unfamiliar time zone and started to feel tired, a cup of coffee would do the trick. It would wake me up. It would perform wonders in synchronizing my internal biological clock with the external sun. It was a wonder concentration drug. But as I entered my forties, it no longer seems to work as well. Too large a normal daily dose of caffeine for too long had gotten my neurons into the habit of expecting to have this extra neurotransmitter-like substance floating around in the synapses. The effect of coffee on trips seemed to be gone--or at least greatly diminished.
So now I'm conducting an experiment: if I save coffee for truly unusual times--dealing with jet lag, et cetera--will it regain its old effect? Or has the biological clock turned so far that I will never again be able to recapture that college-years caffeine rush, and the extraordinary feats of mental concentration that once accompanied it?
In January of 1982, I remember, my internal censor would not let me right more than one paragraph a day of the first draft of my undergraduate senior thesis as long as it was awake: it would stare at the paragraph I had written, think "that's horrible," and refuse to let me write further. But at about 2 AM my internal censor would fall asleep. I would drink two cups of coffee at 11 PM, they would be enough to keep me awake all night long, I would write twelve pages between 2 AM and 7 AM, go to breakfast, eat scrambled eggs and cottage cheese mixed together (a food combination I never liked before, and have never liked since). Then I would sleep away most of the day; wake up and mess around in the afternoon and evening; go to bed at the normal time; wake up the following day and spend the entire morning, afternoon, and evening trying to write but finding myself blocked by my internal censor; drink two cups of coffee at 11 PM; and so start the whole two-day cycle over again. By the end of three weeks of this, I had my hundred-page first draft.
Caffeine was truly my wonder drug then. It isn't now (but, fortunately, my internal censor
Hello Dr. DeLong,
I am in my last year of pharmacy school and enjoy the pharmacology of caffeine and other "active" drugs. It only takes several days for your receptors to upregulate and adjust to your level of caffeine intake. I'll tell you more about it if you like--just ask.
I really am writing to tell you about another often overlooked drug that has gotten a bad wrap--nicotine. If you're a non-smoker, one 2 mg piece of nicotine gum can put you in a similar "thinking" state for an hour and a half or so. Cigarettes are bad, but only because of the tars and carcinogens in them. In other words, the dosage form is bad...not the drug. Nicotine itself poses no long term problems in a healthy person (and may have neuroprotective effects). It also has a much shorter half-life, so it won't keep you going all night, but it won't keep you from sleeping all night either. The one downside is the peppery taste, and learning how to chew it....one small bite with your front teeth every few minutes--then gum it until the peppery sensation subsides. If you chew it like normal gum, I'd be impressed if you didn't vomit (imagine a non-smoker inhaling a cigarette in 1 minute). Enjoy.
Posted by: on July 31, 2002 05:42 PMI forgot to add that nicotine is much more addictive than caffeine...be aware. Use one every couple days on average and prevent the addiction. The same goes for caffeine.
Posted by: on July 31, 2002 06:16 PMWhat about trying instead a alrge orange juice full of freshly squeezed fructose and Vitamin C? ;-)
It's not coffee's kick I would miss most, but its incredible aroma... Or am I addicted, doctor?
Posted by: Jean-Philippe Stijns on July 31, 2002 06:30 PMYou've just described how I wrote my thesis! Except in my case it was Little Debbie donuts, not scrambled eggs and cottage cheese (what were you thinking?)
Posted by: Paul on July 31, 2002 09:43 PMDr. DeLong--
I just wanted to make a quick recomendation should you continue to avoid caffeine. (btw, avoiding caffeine will help reduce insulin resistance and may reduce the risk of diabetes and may improve weight loss...on the other hand,if there is a parkinson's history in your family, drink it- there is strong evidence that it reduces future risk). Two years ago i bicycled down the west coast for a month. Finding or making the morning coffee became a huge chore. A russian friend sent me a care package with the Russian adaptogen Rhodiola Rosea. It made all the difference in the world-- the mood/energy/mental boost was formidable. I'd recommend doing a google search about it, and if you're interested, this is the brand i like and take personally. (Planetary Fomulas brand)
http://store.yahoo.com/iherb/rhodiola1.html
(I have nothing to do with the company nor the retail source, but i like the herbologist Micheal Tierra a lot)
Anyway, if you're interested give it a shot, maybe it will give you back that energy boost.
And thanks for your blogs, i read your page almost daily.
Posted by: Alex D on August 1, 2002 01:27 AM
(geez, sorry for the typo, i meant herbalist! :-)
Posted by: Alex D on August 1, 2002 01:30 AMMy doctor told me to quit caffeine today. What a synchronicity. Nice to know I am not alone... She promised me increased energy after a few days of tired agitation... Let's hang in there.
P.S. And yes, thank you Professor Delong for maintaning this weblog, I also spend an awful of time reading it ;-)
Posted by: Jean-Philippe Stijns on August 1, 2002 11:58 PMI just want to report that my doctor was right. And I haven't even followed her advice completely: I don't drink coffee regularly anymore but I have kept tea as a daily habit. In any case, it does the trick, I can now sleep... and I don't see my hand shake ridiculously.
Posted by: Jean-Philippe Stijns on September 21, 2002 11:20 PM