As I mentioned yesterday, I gave up caffeine last Saturday and have been entirely caffeine free for all of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (today!). Why? I’ve been feeling fatigued lately and my sleep’s been rubbish. I wake up lots during the night. It’s annoying. So when Tim put me up to the caffeine-free challenge on Saturday afternoon (after my third cup of tea), I couldn’t resist.

So far, the experiment has been interesting. I can’t say it’s been terribly hard the way quitting smoking is. But I was surprised that I was enough of a caffeine addict to experience withdrawal symptoms: headaches, tightness in the neck and head, and noticeable irritability (sorry, Tim).

Today was different though. Despite another restless night’s sleep, today I felt fairly energetic. My morning swim was one of the best (and longest) I’ve had in months. And this evening I did 54 push-ups which burned like hell but mentally, I was up for the challenge (rather than being too tired to care). I’ve had no headaches and just a little muscle tension in my neck (but that could have been the swim kicking in). I probably can’t speak for my irritability but I think I’ve been pretty ace!

One of the coolest things I noticed is that I didn’t suffer the usual 3-p.m. “ack I need a caffeine break” crash that I’d become accustomed too. Bonus!

So now I’m past the headaches. And the cravings. I’m hoping my sleep will catch up with the trend and start showing similar improvement.

Addendum: I also just noticed that I’ve been more productive these past few evenings. Maybe this is purely the spirit of “change” shining through, but I’ve had a lot more mental energy to get on with writing and other “useful” things post-dinner. For a while there I was getting sucked into DVDs and books and dessert. Yummy, yes. Productive, not so much.