Two cans plus two coffees a day for about three years. Saturdays I get a headache by mid morning, which I have finally connected to not having the first can. Sleep is poor and I want the afternoon habit gone, but I would like to keep the morning coffee because I enjoy it. Did tapering or a clean break work better for you, and how long was the miserable bit?
Cold turkey, five genuinely unpleasant days, then fine. Day two and three were the worst, headache and a general fog and an unreasonable dislike of everyone. What helped: a lot of water, a walk at the exact time I would have had the drink, and going to bed early without pretending that was a treat. If your job has a week where being slightly useless is survivable, do it then rather than in a busy fortnight.
The number that changed my behaviour: caffeine's half life is commonly quoted at around five to six hours in healthy adults, which means the can at three in the afternoon still has a meaningful fraction of its dose in you at bedtime. I did not need to quit, I needed a cutoff. Nothing after midday, morning coffee untouched.
Sleep improved within about a week and, unexpectedly, the afternoon craving got weaker on its own once I was sleeping better. Half of my three o'clock habit was compensating for the sleep the three o'clock habit had ruined.
This loop is the real trap. The tiredness that justifies the drink is partly caused by the drink, and you cannot see it from inside the loop.
Replace the ritual, not the substance. My three o'clock thing was never really about caffeine, it was about standing up, leaving the desk and having ten minutes where nobody could ask me anything. Now it is a cold sparkling water and a walk round the block, same time, same length. The caffeine went without a fight once the ritual survived.
Disagreeing with the taper advice, at least for me. A slow reduction meant I made the decision every single day for three weeks, and every day was a fresh chance to negotiate with myself. One clean break meant the decision was made once and everything after was just weather. Different brains, but if you are the sort of person who finds partial rules exhausting, the taper is the harder path, not the easier one.
Watch what you replace it with. I dropped energy drinks and felt very righteous while drinking four espressos a day, which was more caffeine than before, just in a smarter looking cup. Count the total, not the number of cans.
@wind_down_wren · 4mo ago · 3 replies
Tapered over about three weeks and it was undramatic, which was the point. Week one I swapped the afternoon can for a half caf coffee, week two for a decaf, week three for sparkling water. The Saturday headache pattern you describe is the classic tell that the body has adjusted to a daily dose, so a gradual reduction gives it a gentler ramp.
If your headaches are severe, unusual for you, or come with anything else odd, that is a conversation with a doctor rather than a forum. Mine were dull and boring and went away.
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@deadline_dee · 4mo ago
One addition to the taper: keep the timing constant while you reduce the dose. Changing both when you drink it and how much at once makes it hard to tell what is causing what.
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@night_train_ned · 4mo ago
Dull and boring is what mine are, and they arrive like clockwork on my days off. Starting the three week version this weekend.
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