CAFFEINE

The other day I had blogged about not getting any sleep. On Sunday I was still trying to figure out the reason I wasn't able to sleep besides my chonic pain from arthirits in my shoulders. It hit me (God told me!) that just maybe it was the amount of caffeine I consume.

I have always been a coffee drinker (morning, noon and night) and never had a problem sleeping, so I thought surely it can't be that. But God kept insisting that it was the caffeine, so on Monday of this week I decided to try a little experiment and I had no caffeine after 12:00 noon. Lo and behold I slept much better than I usually do. Granted I was still awoken by the pain I have, but once I readjusted I was able to go right back to sleep. I tried it again on Tuesday and on Tuesday night my sleep was better, about the same as Monday.

On Wednesday I drank caffeinated beverages until 2:00, guess what?! I didn't sleep as well on Wednesday night. Thursday I went back to the 12:00 deadline and slept better on Thursday night.

For months I have not slept more than 3 or 4 hours a night in increments. The most I would get would be around a 2 hour stretch at night then wake up roll around or get up and watch tv and then finally doze back off for an hour or so. I'm still waking around 4-4:30 in the morning but I have been going to bed by 9:00 this week. 6-7 hours is about what I need to have a good day the next day.

I just couldn't believe that it's the caffeine because I have been a coffee drinker for so long. My system is changing and I need to change with it and that's what I'll do because it's been wonderful to actually get some sleep at night and not feel like I'm in a fog all day at work.

So if you are having trouble sleeping and drink a lot of caffeinated beverages, your system may be trying to tell you it's too much now.

Here's to better sleep!