Less Coffee, Better Sleep

One of the unexpected impacts I experienced when going to zero cups per-day was that I suddenly started dreaming more often and more vividly. It was like how I remember sleep as a child, with nights full of weird and wonderful dreams, rather than only remembering one or two dreams a week as an adult.

I only had this effect when going completely zero caffeine, not when I cut down to one cup a day.

Unfortunately coffee is a vicious cycle, where I end up picking the habit back up on work trips. Before I know it I'm drinking a cup of coffee while writing a reply on HN about how great it was when I gave it up.

I'm sure it's different for everyone, but I can only tolerate a tiny amount of coffee now. Like brewing 6-10 grams of beans, once per morning. But even then, after a month or so, it definitely results in generally low energy, worse sleep etc... And I really don't like how it's the first thing that I MUST do when I wake up.

I ultimately have to detox, which I find takes few weeks. And then I'll feel great for a few months "sober".

But I really do love cofeee - I even roast it myself in small batches. So, I inevitably end up drinking it again and the cycle continues.

Life is definitely better without it.

I’ve always struggled with sleep. A few things that helped me (in order of importance)

- go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Getting up is more important than going to bed.

- no phone in bed, and limit stimulating activities (intense video games, programming, planning the vacation etc) to 90 minutes before bed. I read during that time but TV, cleaning, music, whatever works.

- a bad nights sleep will happen, often a few nights in a row. Be ok with that (easier said than done, I did CBT for this). Instead of lying in bed restless get up and watch TV, or read.

- leave the house for 30 minutes every day.

- journal as often as possible. Ideally daily, but a few times a eeek. Don’t ever read it back but just write down your feelings and the things on your mind. Do good and bad.

- exercise every other day.

- no coffee after lunch, and never more than 3 in a morning.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint and overall I have way less bad nights than I did before, and I don’t beat myself up as much for the bad nights.

Whenever I stop drinking coffee for a few days or even months, I find that it becomes harder to wake up. I seem to sleep a lot heavier, but in the morning it's difficult to open my eyes as they feel heavy.

It doesn't matter if I have 1 cup in the morning or drink coffee all day. As long as I have it in my system from the previous day, it's very easy to wake up the next day.

I started drinking decaf black instead of coffee for the past several years now, that seems to help the psychological ritual of drinking coffee in the morning to wake you up but not actually have (or have very small amounts of) caffeine.

I want to get better sleep but can not maintain a proper schedule due to university, 2 days a week it's waking up at 8 AM and otherwise 10 AM/11 AM.

I usually have coffee at Morning and a light coffee at 5 PM, it generally helps to do more work because I feel like I want to sit and work. Otherwise I'd dopamine max or play a sport.

Any tips on improving sleep? (It's simply not possible to follow a strict schedule due to multiple deadlines of so many things)

Cutting coffee to just the morning definitely helped me.

My problem now is that if I think of anything vaguely interesting in the evening then my brain refuses to stop thinking about it. That and restless legs.

Evening if my main time for hobby projects so having them lead to disrupted sleep is really annoying. Any tips?

Interesting coincidence - I’ve been drinking only one cup of coffee in the morning for the past month or so.

Used to drink one in the morning and one immediately after lunch. Couldn’t really tell the difference in sleep quality and to be fair I’m waking up more frequently in the past 2 weeks, but I guess that has to do more with heat than anything else.

Listened to many podcasts trying to learn more about this and they all seem to argue that it’s actually more important when you drink coffee. If you get your last coffee right after lunch your body will have almost no caffeine circulating in the system by the end of the day and that will make you sleep better.

For many people this might make a massive difference. But people are not equally sensitive to caffeine.

Previous discussion in 2024: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41140565

Recently cut out cannabis, cbd, coffee and all alcohol and its shocking how different your sleep becomes. There needs to be more research done on stimulant free brains and my theory of how better our brains are at "taking the trash out" at night when not pumped full of quick/easy dopamine.

I was having 3-4 per day. Wasn't feeling so great. Decided for quality over quantity. Had just one cappuccino a week Sunday morning. Did that for several years. But then started a relationship with a coffee lover. Now have 2 in the morning which is as much caffeine as my prev 4. Yet I've had no ill effects.

I get sleepy after drinking coffee. and also energy drinks.

This is what I do when get heavy sleepy. 30min or 1 hour sleeping time is enough to stay conscious for next hours.

Right now we have 30 ºC at nighttime + 80% relative humidity (and no, no AC). I can assure you that coffee is the last of my problems.

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Over my dead body.

I love coffee. I always have. It has anti oxidant properties. Don't drink the crap coffee. Most Americans have no idea what good coffee is. They're as educated with coffee as they are with nutrition.

Just drink less of it if you must but enjoy it. Get good coffee. Avoid it after 3 PM if you want good sleep. I found a late night cup after a dinner with friends typically sets me right for the drive home and does not damage sleep. But between 3 and 9 PM it's not great for sleep.

Finally it's important to understand that caffeine does not give you energy. It only hides fatigue. If you have trouble sleeping then avoid caffeine. You can get good decaf options today. But they still contain approx a fifth of a regular cup's caffeine.