Four ways caffeine keeps you from realizing your potential. For many this tip has the potential to have a bigger impact than any other single action, but it’s easier said than done. The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm has a direct link to your performance. Doesn’t matter if you are 7 or 87.
The Good – isn’t really good. Studies suggest caffeine actually improves cognitive task performance (memory, attention span, etc.) – in the short-term. But new research shows that any performance increases due to caffeine intake are the result of caffeine drinkers experiencing a short-term reversal of caffeine withdrawal. In fact caffeine-related performance improvement is nonexistent without caffeine withdrawal. Coming off caffeine reduces your cognitive performance and has a negative impact on your mood. Then the only way to get back to normal is to drink caffeine. When you drink it, you feel like it’s taking you to new heights. In reality caffeine just takes your performance back to normal for a short period.
The Bad: Adrenaline. Drinking caffeine triggers a release of adrenaline. Adrenaline is the source of the “fight or flight” response, the survival mechanism when faced when a threat. This mechanism sidesteps rational thinking in favor of a faster response. This is great when a bear is chasing you, but no so great when responding to a curt email. Caffeine can let your emotions overrun your behavior.
Irritability and anxiety are the most commonly seen emotional effects of caffeine, but it enables all your emotions to take charge. With the popularity of coffee and coffee-shops sweeping the nation, this has all the makings of a bad TV episode.
It gets worse. The negative effects of a caffeine-generated adrenaline surge are not just behavioral. Large doses of caffeine raise blood pressure, stimulate the heart, and produce rapid shallow breathing, which deprives the brain of the oxygen needed to keep your thinking calm and rational.
The Ugly: Sleep. Your self-control, focus, memory, and information processing speed are all reduced when you don’t get enough – or the right kind of – sleep. For you to wake up feeling rested your brain needs to move through an elaborate series of sleep cycles. You can help this process and improve the quality of your sleep by reducing your caffeine intake.
Caffeine has a six hour half-life, so it takes a full 24 hours to work its way out of your system. Anything you drink after noon will still be at half strength at bedtime. Any caffeine in your bloodstream makes it harder to fall asleep. When you finally fall asleep the worst is yet to come. Caffeine reduces the quality of REM sleep, the deep sleep when your body recuperates. Without REM sleep you feel tired the next day, making you inclined to grab a cup of coffee or energy drink to make yourself feel better. The caffeine produces a rush of adrenaline, which furthers your emotional handicap. Then caffeine withdrawal and lack of deep sleep leaves you feeling tired in the afternoon – so your drink more caffeine, leaving even more of it in your bloodstream at bedtime. This quickly creates a vicious downward spiral.
Side effects of caffeine: irritability, anxiety, restlessness, confusion, delirium, headache, insomnia, sleep deprivation, seeing flashes, ringing in the ears, increased sensitivity to touch or pain, muscle trembling, twitching, and overextension, rapid or irregular heartbeat, rapid breathing, frequent urination, and dehydration.
Withdrawal: like any stimulant caffeine is physiologically and psychologically addictive. If you do choose to lower your intake, do so slowly. Caffeine withdrawal causes headache, fatigue, sleepiness, and difficulty concentrating. Some report flu-like symptoms, depression, and anxiety after reducing intake by as little as one cup a day. Slowly tapering your caffeine dosage can greatly reduce these withdrawal symptoms.
I retype these Bradberry columns to learn and hopefully improve my own life. This subject seemed out of the ordinary and interesting. I used to drink a ton of Diet Coke, but finally quit buying it. The past 2-3 years I’ve bought the RaceTrac free summer refill cup, but drank more caffeine-free Vitamin Water lemonade than Mtn Dew or Dr. Pepper. Perhaps I’ll pass completely this year.
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