Not to prevent sleep, but kill out sleepiness. I go bed on 10pm with 8h sleep everyday. But if I don’t take caffeine, I will have everything princec said before.
I get a disgusted feeling when I drink coffee in my mouth and stomach.
I only have a cup a day maybe… I think it happens because I actually mentally despise coffee and what it can do to you… I think my brain is protecting me.
My body has a more visceral reaction to alcohol (which I never drink)… I’ve seen and heard enough things that has made alcohol (even the remote smell of it) extremely repulsive physically.
Your brain and past experiences can make you do/think some crazy (see awesome) things!
Apparently one of the reasons people feel terrible in the morning is because they spent 8 hours plus however many hours before bed without any hydration. Coffee dehydrates you so it makes you feel even worse. The caffeine gives you a little boost before starting to be detrimental but people interpret that as helping and think they need to keep up caffeine intake. It is better just to drink lots of water first thing in the morning and throughout the rest of the day.
People diagnose themselves with an energy deficiency that is alleviated by caffeine so they self prescribe caffeine or energy drinks. Caffeine keeps you awake, but its a defense mechanism for plants that keeps animals away after they try eating it. It’s a deterrent in nature but for some reason it is sought out for by people - even when people complain how bad and unproductive it makes them feel!
There are social pressures (at least / especially) in America to drink coffee or a stronger substitute. It’s ritualistic, it’s demanded because it is associated with hard work, and it is seen as a social act. You are weird if you don’t drink coffee. (Americans are also more alcoholic as a society than they like to admit even though social alcoholism for other nationalities is a joke to Americans.) If you live somewhere where people assume you drink coffee or alcohol and it’s socially awkward to decline a drink or tell people you don’t drink, chances are its more of an addiction and societal pressure for you than a real craving.
Oh, Coffee (as well as tea and many other beverages/foods) can stain your teeth to the point you have to clarify to your dentist that you’re not a heavy smoker.
And yes, that is probably the biggest reason I want to stop having coffee. I actually managed to switch to Tea once, but the staining go worse! :cranky:
It’s good to note that exercise is a good idea if you find yourself getting tired. While your body feels tired, your brain becomes more active and refreshed.
I found it easy to quit my coffee habit cold turkey - didn’t even have any headaches or cravings - then again, I ‘only’ used to drink 4-5 cups a day.
Then, after about 6 months, I drank one cup, and couldn’t help myself staying awake for over 40 hours, programming for 36 hours straight. That caffeine is powerful stuff.
Why do you all hate this wonderful piece of software?
??? ??? 
:persecutioncomplex: :persecutioncomplex: 
/endderailattempt
This man did it right.
I find that Barqs keeps me awake well enough (it’s not the caffiene, the carbonation and strong taste keep me awake).
or tea. tea is great too.
[quote]Caffeine keeps you awake, but its a defense mechanism for plants that keeps animals away after they try eating it.
[/quote]
Actually, I just heard the opposite. The mental boost from caffeine in pollen can help a bee remember where the flower is.
I wonder if I can find the study, if challenged. I recall it done on one particular flowering plant but I don’t recall which, and the experimenters hadn’t yet determined if it was in other flowers. But it could be the ironic truth that health-food types trying to be caffeine free but enjoying a boost from bee pollen are actually getting a dose without knowing it.
Found it!
And now on to some REALLY bad advice:
When I was pulling all-nighters in college, the only way to keep from getting too many jitters from coffee was to smoke cigarettes. Nicotine seemed to take the edge off, without making one too sleepy.
For some reason I never got addicted to cigarettes and would only use them like this (going through most of a pack in a night along with a full pot or two of coffee at the IHOP) on rare occasions. After a session like this I usually felt so bad after that I wouldn’t smoke for the better part of a week. I haven’t smoked since my late twenties. I don’t recommend cigarettes to anyone prone to addictions or who cares about their lungs, or eyes (MD said it contributed to my father’s loss of eye-sight in his old age).
Good talk about sleep on “Fresh Air” last week:
http://www.npr.org/2013/08/15/212276021/of-neurons-and-memories-inside-the-secret-world-of-sleep
Do try to make sleep a higher priority! Lack contributes to burnout, which I bet is the #1 cause of programmers quitting the profession.
Homework usually has me sleeping 6-7 hours, so I don’t really need coffee :point:
But when I do drink it, I pull all-nighters, then I hallucinate on the next day (it’s kinda like being high, I think).
Wow! This has got to be some sort of record! My longest continous coding time was 6 hours 9pm to3am and I wasn’t able to code for days afterwards.
I love coffee. Kept me awake studying my medical books when I was at uni. 2 cups a day until I got hospitalized and I was advised not to take coffee or tea. This is what I drink now:
Actually, I just heard the opposite. The mental boost from caffeine in pollen can help a bee remember where the flower is.
I wonder if I can find the study, if challenged. I recall it done on one particular flowering plant but I don’t recall which, and the experimenters hadn’t yet determined if it was in other flowers. But it could be the ironic truth that health-food types trying to be caffeine free but enjoying a boost from bee pollen are actually getting a dose without knowing it.
Found it!
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Cool. I wonder to what extent what I said is true. I would not necessarily say they are opposite because I am not sure it would have the same effect on mammals as on bees or if all plants that produce caffeine are pollinated by bees. Speaking of bees and nicotine, nicotine is something that deters bees so that they only pollinate a plant once but has a completely different effect on other animals.
[quote]Cool. I wonder to what extent what I said is true. I would not necessarily say they are opposite because I am not sure it would have the same effect on mammals as on bees or if all plants that produce caffeine are pollinated by bees.
[/quote]
Very true. Could have different effects on different animals. But also, the different forms of delivery, different quantities or different combinations with other ingredients could have opposite affects.
Here’s another candidate for caffeine delivery to consider: Bubble Tea! (aka Pearl Tea)
I think those tapioca pearls are great. I try to only have one or two a month. I could see really making them a habit.
Like to animals, caffeine has different effect to humans too. Some people get wake all night and (even) hallucinate, while others feel nothing even after two cups (like me).
[quote]Wow! This has got to be some sort of record! My longest continous coding time was 6 hours 9pm to3am and I wasn’t able to code for days afterwards.
[/quote]
My longest strike was almost 24h (reduced with eat, pee, and making coffee. No poop or nap) in a hackathon. After that I spent a week procrastinating.
That was a little too much information :yawn:
I said something kind of stupid. It doesn't matter if bees were the only species that interacted with caffeine in plants or not. The logic was almost "A implies B, A does not equal C, C implies D, therefore D," which is obviously faulty, and should not be taken to be true on those grounds. It also borrows from the common misunderstanding of a highly anthropomorphic or cause and effect based evolution. Bees may have exploited caffeine for their own uses, or plants could have exploited bees by making caffeine, or it could have been co-evolution, or it could just be coincidence, or everything I said could just be anecdote, or the memory effect in bees could be wrong. All the individual parts could be true but it should not have been persuasive. ;) I noticed no logic flaws in the nicotine comment though.
When I thought about what I said I realized I could have forgotten that caffeine was not exclusively a defense mechanism but also something that helped the plant by giving the mammal that ate it insomnia and faster metabolism (or whatever caffeine does), carrying the plant seeds much farther than normal before the animal pooped them out somewhere far away. Which is pretty similar to bee pollination. Take that with a grain of salt because I also can’t remember if I heard it in a biology, chemistry, or math class… The point is animals may eat plants with caffeine but do not necessarily respond to what they feel after ingesting it by ingesting more and more like certain cultures do.
Also, everyone be careful with self diagnosis. Smoking may not be an addiction you have after reducing caffeine intake, but it could be a consequence of a different addiction like caffeine addiction. Do not treat lack of sleep with a sleep suppressant. If someone thought they risked becoming addicted to their hangover cure and felt sick around the time they took it, then you would hope they would be more reflective. You also don’t want to look for substitutes for something at the first sign that it bothers you in some ways just because it may be difficult to give up.
The number of people that convince themselves to quit coffee for health reasons but take up soda instead as an alternate caffeine source is shocking. There are also people that quit soda for health reasons and take up energy drinks. Then there are also people that quit energy drinks for health reasons and mix caffeine powder into “healthier” drinks. It’s a real thing…
I forgot to mention that hot chocolate is an alternative to coffee and tea. (Whatever may happen to be your preference. And plain chocolate was already mentioned.) It also contains caffeine besides sugar. I don’t know how much compared to other things. I was going to mention it as an alternative before reading what other people said. Try it if you hate coffee and want a warm liquid or to help wake up first thing in the morning on certain bad days. Don’t try it if you want to sleep less.
If it were a morning thing or psychological thing, I would also say there is no rule against having soup for breakfast. (For now at least. :persecutioncomplex: ) I still recommend against starting a caffeine “supplement” if you don’t ingest it already. (It makes me unproductive and sick even if other people like it - I found no way around it and see no reason to now.) And I recommend reducing it if you started or increased your caffeine intake based on the rationale that it is just what you are supposed to do.
Someone make a game about coffee.
It would make a good Ludlum Dare topic.
Aren’t all games, in a sense, about coffee?