I quit coffee for 30 days

And why you should try too while still working from home

I love coffee. I love the ritual of making it, the smell, the taste, and I love that it gives me energy.

So why would I quit?

Coffee has been in my daily routine ever since I started going to college. Over the years, I have probably build up a tolerance. Now I do believe any form of substance dependence isn’t very healthy for you.

With this experiment, I wanted to find out whether quitting coffee would make me feel, think, or sleep better.

How did I go?

Quitting coffee cold turkey isn’t fun, but neither is being an addict. When dealing with addiction, it helps if your environment supports the desired behavior. Just like smokers having e-cigarettes, you need a substitute in place. Instead of coffee, I made myself a mint tea every morning.

After 48 hours, the headache came and it wasn’t fun. I just felt like sleeping hours on end, binge-watching Netflix, and eating chocolate. This lasted for at least 5 days. Luckily I was home alone in quarantine. So tip!

When you’re quitting coffee pick a few days which don’t require you to be productive. Make sure you have a couch around where you can go for a nap if you need one.

6 days later all my symptoms disappeared. While I hoped quitting coffee would give me more energy, it didn’t. My energy levels felt the same.

Now quitting coffee did improve my sleep a lot. Where I used to need an hour to fall asleep, I now take 10 minutes. This is one major benefit and possibly a reason to quit coffee once and for all.

Let me explain.

Why is sleep so important for our health?

“ Within the brain, sleep enriches a diversity of functions, including our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions and choices.”

— Matthew Walker, Why we sleep

While sleep doesn’t seem pretty useful to the eye, behind the scene your brain is organizing and updating itself. Now I always like to compare our brain with a computer. A computer has to update its software as time goes on…