Coffee seems to be a college student’s best friend. However, after two months of drinking coffee, I quit and I do not regret making that decision. This article is only my personal experience about how coffee interacted with my body. If you have been thinking about quitting coffee or are just curious about how I survive without coffee, this article is for you.
All throughout high school I never drank coffee because I simply never liked it. But when I entered college there seemed to be more things to do than possible, which is what started me drinking coffee. For the first month, I swore that I was fine. But by the second month, I noticed that drinking coffee negatively affected my life. When I stopped drinking coffee, it was easy for me because it was something that I didn’t drink all the time or for a long period of time.
So I’m sure you’re wondering just why I quit coffee?
Caffeine is known to affect mood and sleeping disorders. When you drink caffeine, it releases cortisol and triggers the stress response. The coffee stays in your system between five and seven hours. It is made up of two half-lives and is processed in two sections adding up to ten to fourteen hours. The coffee stays in your system all day and does not wear away in the first few hours.
The first change I noticed was coffee anxiety. You’ve probably heard of it, as someone who already had mild anxiety this a a huge deciding factor. HIgh levels of caffeine seemed to make my anxiety way worse. It affected my daily life and even made getting things done worse. I know that many people are now quitting coffee to help improve their mental health.
I decided to quit coffee after reading a blog about a girl quitting coffee for her anxiety. Since I have stopped drinking coffee, I have noticed that my anxiety is still there as it was before, but it isn’t as bad as when I drank coffee. Instead of stacking coffee with stressors, I just need to focus on working on overcoming the stressors.
The second change I noticed was an improved quality of sleep. We all know that caffeine can affect your sleep cycles. As soon as I stopped drinking coffee, I was back to sleeping my regular 8 hours and I even stopped having the urge to oversleep on the weekends. Caffeine will leave you not able to sleep at night and feel more tired in the morning, making you more dependent on that morning coffee.
Another reason I stopped drinking coffee is a very personal reason, that will not be the same for many people. As a type one diabetic, coffee can affect your blood sugar levels and cause it to spike. If you are not diabetic, caffeine will not affect your blood sugar, but because of my disease, it does. I found that caffeine influenced my blood sugar levels. It can even raise your blood sugar without any creamers or sweeteners, but when you add creamers and sweeteners to make the taste more bearable it affects it at a higher level.
Finally, I had more energy and a better mood. You may be surprised to hear that coffee actually caused fatigue for me. As soon as I stopped drinking coffee, I had way more energy and a better mood. I would tend to get foggy and grump towards the afternoon as the first half of the caffeine began to wear off. In the end, I love not drinking coffee and do not regret giving it up. It has brought many improvements to my life. Instead of coffee, I choose to drink green tea, which has a minimum of 70 m.g. of caffeine difference to an 8 o.z. brewed coffee or herbal teas like mint which has no caffeine. In general, tea is not associated with the same side effects as caffeine because of how low in caffeine it is.