Is it ruining your productivity?
In other words, that euphoric short-term state that you enter after drinking coffee is what non-habitual caffeine consumers are experiencing all of the time. The difference is that for coffee drinkers, the feeling doesn’t last. “Coming off caffeine reduces your cognitive performance and has a negative impact on your mood. The only way to get back to normal is to drink caffeine, and when you do drink it, you feel like it’s taking you to new heights,” Bradberry explained. “In reality, the caffeine is just taking your performance back to normal for a short period.”
See, for me, the thing is that I can’t even tell whether or not I’ve had any. I just drink it for medicinal purposes. In fact, even though I now drink two cups almost every morning, I don’t consider myself a “habitual” drinker, because that implies that it’s a habit. It really isn’t, for me. I sometimes forget to drink it.
Rand, All,
Some people — too many in my opinion — use coffee to fight the effects of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation is causing major harm to the United States. Tired people make all sorts of mistakes. Caffeine doesn’t seem to help except in the very short term.
I have put on my blog a link to the February Mensa Bulletin. The feature article, titled Zombie Nation, which begins on page 22, is a good introduction to the damage sleep deprivation does to the United States. For the space geeks out there, the Challenger disaster is mentioned in the first paragraph.
I don’t now. Last night i omly got tree hours of sleep and ttoday have had only two cups of coffee and am ffeeling alert and energised.
“In reality, the caffeine is just taking your performance back to normal for a short period.”
Nah. Not for me, anyway. Caffeine is definitely a mood enhancer. I have a double espresso every morning. Without it, say if I get a cold or something, I’ll get a minor headache in the morning but that goes away in a few days. I see no downside of having a cup or two every day.
The headaches from withdrawal were what signaled to me I was drinking too much.
that euphoric short-term state that you enter after drinking coffee is what non-habitual caffeine consumers are experiencing all of the time.
That is a god damned lie.
(And I feel willing to say that because that transcendently horrible article that was just a repost from another site, full of internal links to that same site [bad even by Slate standards!] couldn’t be bothered to link to the actual study, or even an author’s post about it.
“Feeling really good is just not having caffeine withdrawal!” doesn’t work as an explanation for why an afternoon cup, before any possible withdrawal can be happening, also has that effect.)
(I do suspect that Mr. Devine may be right. I love my coffee, but I also love getting enough sleep, and do.
I know people who habitually only get maybe 6 hours a night, and I’d die – figuratively, at least – if I tried that.)
Sigivald, All,
My last name really is spelled Divine, not the much more common Devine. To help people remember, I sometimes quote my “family motto:”
To err is human
To forgive, Divine
Feel free to groan. 🙂
My coffee consumption is definitely a habit, but I acquired it as a result of my parents’ growing up during the Depression. Every morning, my mother would admonish me: “Drink all of your coffee! There are children sleeping in Africa!”