Caffeine.
Ahhh... the smell of fresh brewed coffee in the morning. What better way to wake up and prepare for the long work day ahead?
I used to drink 3 cups of a coffee a day.
I know, I have a problem.
Luckily (and unluckily) for me, my workplace offers free coffee all day every day. With such availability, how could you resist?
Daily Routine:
- First coffee of the day is consumed immediately upon arriving to work.
- Second coffee of the day is consumed after lunch
- Third (and typically last) coffee of the day is consumed mid-afternoon to get me through the day.
Due to this consumption cycle of 3 cups a day, I continually had a hard time sleeping. Which ironically results in being tired in the morning, needing that cup of joe immediately upon arriving to work... and the vicious cycle continues.
One day, I decided to look up some facts about caffeine. One piece of information I found was regarding the half-life of caffeine.
The half-life of caffeine: 5-6 hours.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
This means that if you consumed 500mg of caffeine at 4 PM, 250mg will still be in your system at 9-10 PM.
NO WONDER I'M HAVING TROUBLE SLEEPING.
In discovering this information, I realized that I needed to consume my coffee earlier in the day and cut myself off after 12 PM. Why 12 PM? Most of the caffeine will be out of my system by the time I sleep if I did not consume anymore after this time.
I found that pounding 2 cups in the morning/mid-morning, followed by eating a proper meal at lunch, I wasn't sluggish and tired going into the afternoon.
I was able to scale back to 2 cups a day and continually eat a healthy lunch.
MORE SLEEP = WIN.
Cheers,
