Caffeine Intake, Anxiety and Sleep

There are many issues that walk hand in hand with quitting smokeless tobacco. Sleep issues are a VERY common side effect, as is anxiety. You can find a slew of articles here on the site about both topics. What many quitters don’t realize is caffeine can make both of these issues far worse. KTC community member dadof3 (May 22) recently shared some experimenting he’s doing with caffeine intake and how it’s affected his sleep and general well being.

Been working on my caffeine intake and reducing it to help with anxiety and sleep. Posted this over in the pre-hof thread but wanted to share my experience a week in here too:

So I’m about a little less than a week into the following to reduce my caffeine – I have 3 cups of coffee a day, ALL before 9:00 am. I have that mud water at around noon, it does have a tiny bit of caffeine in it. That’s all I have – I’ve cut out pop and energy drinks completely. I’ve also started using blue light glasses after 8:00 pm for this whole week too. Prior to this I used the following to sleep almost nightly for MONTHS in differing combinations – alcohol, Nyquil, devil’s lettuce, sleep aids, or binging Scrubs. Shitty, but being honest.

I sleep amazing! I have been having sleepy time tea around 10:00 pm and usually can’t keep my eyes open by the end of drinking it. Dreaming way more now than ever. It used to take me around 1 or 2 hours to really feel ready for my day. 15 minutes into my mornings now and I’m fully awake.

Energy wise, I’m doing pretty good. I’m noticing without caffeine in the PM I’m REALLY sensitive to dehydration. Yesterday I had my tough lunch workout and my water bottle was still completely full when I started – usually empty at that point in the day. Between the hard workout and the lack of water, I was sucking air by 4:00 pm. That has been the first day since the initial 24 hours where I thought about having caffeine to pick me up. 2 Liquid IV’s and was right back up energy wise so I’m pretty sure it was dehydration.

Down side is also the dreaming though. I’ve had a legit dip dream or reference to nicotine in a dream every single night this week I think.

I’m so happy with how this is going I’m as serious about limiting my caffeine in this way as I am about my nicotine quit – they have both been huge positive changes in my life.

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan community member dadof3