Similar here, but I've found that as long as I don't drink caffeine after 3pm, I sleep well. Any later than that and I wake at 3am or so. Made such a difference when I discovered this... I lost a serious amount of grumpiness.
I must be seriously broken. I can even enjoy a cup of coffee at the bedside and still sleep. Not that I do that often.
Falling asleep for me is easy. I pretty much always wake up about four hours later. Then sometimes I remain wide awake for another few hours. After which I'm ready for sleep again. The second bout is pretty glorious. This does mean however, that I need to pretty much put 11 hours aside each night, if I want to play to my bodily demands.
My other half rather annoyingly insists everyone should wake when they rise. Which just isn't good for my mental health - or my programming for that matter!
i frequently come home late, drink a diet coke or whatever, and head straight to bed. i've gone back and forth between drinking a six pack of diet mountain dew a day and nothing and never noticed a difference. i can slam two bottles of Bawls (160mg) or eat 3 Fooshes (http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/candy/6e27, >300mg total) and still take (and want) a nap.
if i gave myself anything close the amount of sleep i appear to be capable of taking, i'd never be up to get anything done....
I doubt you're immune, just addicted. You say you can go a day without caffeine. I challenge you to go 3 days with absolutely no caffeine. Absolutely nothing, so no decaf, no chocolate. I bet it makes you feel horrible. If so, you're addicted, like the vast majority.
Regardless of the nature of addiction in his specific case, I can assure you there are people who don't get the rush from coffee (even without prior exposure, that can possibly increase your level of tolerance).
I was born in India and my family does not drink coffee, hence I was never exposed to it during my childhood, except now and then, at parties.
It was only at work that I tried it out regularly and because of the way it affected me, I had to give it up.
I even joke that a few cups of coffee would probably help me go to sleep (but I have never tried it out in practice yet)
It has been 4 years since I blogged about it and I would probably have drunk less than 5 cups since then, with none in the last year, so addiction is out of the question.
Sugar works very well to wake me up, but I have to look out for and handle the subsequent crash later.
On an (un)related note, I also have tremendous tolerance to alcohol. I found this out a decade ago when I could legally drink and would experiment with various spirits and liqueur. Since budget was limited, each of us in a group has a limited number of shots, and I used to feel awkward when my friends used to talk about "that dizzy feeling" and I did not experience any. It was only later that I found out what was going on.
This also means my options to reach the "state of bliss" is limited, and the cheapest way for me to reach that state is meditation.
I am not sure if both symptoms are related, but someone who follows this more closely can perhaps comment.
I'm also the kind of person who can drink coffee at night, or can have a couple of cups of coffee after dinner, and not notice any effect on my sleeping. I'm definitely not addicted, because I rarely drink coffee on weekends - so the last three day period I went without coffee was this past weekend.
I usually go to bed between 9:30 and 11:00, and I drink my coffee black if that makes a difference. Maybe it's all the sugar that's keeping people up (or it could be that different people have significantly variant biochemistries; who knew?)
Abstract: "We explored whether caffeine, and expectation of having consumed caffeine, affects attention, reward responsivity and mood using double-blinded methodology. 88 participants were randomly allocated to ‘drink-type’ (caffeinated/decaffeinated coffee) and ‘expectancy’ (told caffeinated/told decaffeinated coffee) manipulations. Both caffeine and expectation of having consumed caffeine improved attention and psychomotor speed. Expectation enhanced self-reported vigour and reward responsivity. Self-reported depression increased at post-drink for all participants, but less in those receiving or expecting caffeine. These results suggest caffeine expectation can affect mood and performance but do not support a synergistic effect."
Not necessarily. When I was in high school, I drank between 4 to 6 cups of coffee a day. It never affected me. The reason for this is twofold: It's just part of the culture in my family in India, and I really liked the taste.
Fast forward a couple years and I am in college. I hate, absolutely detest the taste of any american coffee. I don't know what's missing, but I only enjoy coffee in India. I went from 4-6 cups a day to about 1 cup a week in a couple weeks. Nowadays, I don't drink much coffee at all, probably 2 or 3 cups a month at the most. But when I am in India, I drink as much as I can. :)
While the parent commenter may indeed be addicted, it's also possible that he is simply unaffected by caffeine. I certainly find that true for me.
Ah, that was an unfortunate ordering of sentences. I was just giving an explanation for my consumption rate, not a reason for why I wasn't affected. I should have proofread that. I'm sorry.
i'll be happy to do so again. (well, not so happy about the chocolate part....) (i hate coffee on taste principles, so decaf isn't even in the picture, all my caffeine these days comes from diet soda and chocolate.) i'll get back to you on the results.
It may be the coffee that's helping you to sleep. Some dutch (based on the region) have the habit of drinking a good cup of coffee in the evening right before going to bed. I tried this a couple of times. Around 5-10 minutes after the coffee I felt incredibly tired and had a really fantastic sleep. It's as if the coffee helped me fall into deeper sleep. However, when I'd wait too long after having the cup of coffee, it'd take me hours until I could finally fall asleep.
