Getting some sleep

Hi everyone!

I write to you today with a happy heart. As some of you might know, and many do not, I have struggled with sleep issues since I was young. My problem has consistently been difficulty with falling asleep - sometimes it takes hours upon hours. Sometimes I just don’t sleep at all.

With a lifelong history of dealing with this, I chalked it up to my circadian rhythm being wired differently than most. Maybe I am a “night owl” to my core and I can thrive off six hours of sleep like a pro. That narrative would intermittently ease my mind. If I’m just different and don’t require as much sleep, why stress about it?

But the restorative benefits that eight hours of sleep provides is undeniable. And as I approach my thirties I really want to master this thing. So, after years of trying every sleep aid, breath work, meditation, supplement, and mindful mental gymnastics under the sun, I decided to stop drinking coffee. It sounds so BASIC. Right?

Coffee has been an integral part of my morning ritual for half my life. Wake up, water, cold brew. I love the taste and the bit of energy I gain from the caffeination. And since I consume it between the hours of 8am-10am, the thought had never dawned on me that it might be affecting my sleep quality 15+ hours later.

It has only been a couple of weeks since I cut it out flat, and I am truly in awe of the difference I already feel.

Most notably: better SLEEP!

I have been tracking my data with an Oura ring. Since I got it in July, my scores have averaged around the low sixties to high seventies (out of 100). Since cutting out coffee, I steadily score in the high seventies to high eighties! The ring even noticed the progress. Last week it asked me “Are you doing something different? Your sleep score is on the rise. Keep it up!”.

Other benefits I’ve noticed: improvement in complexion, lower resting heart rate, absence of a mid-day crash, and lower anxiety levels.

I should mention that I don’t suffer from anxiety on a regular basis, but caffeine has a way of making me TOO energized and when that combines with an elevated heart rate, I would just feel a little insane in the mornings. Insane but super productive haha! Now I just feel calm and collected. Completely able to crush a CrossFit workout without a crash.

Anyways, I’m quite pleased with the outcome thus far. I still consume about 100mg of caffeine via a protein bar most days, but that’s about 250mg less than my average intake! Gone are the days of heart rate spikes and sleepless nights. I realize two weeks worth of data is hardly enough to draw long-term conclusions, but I hope this piques your interest if you’re suffering from similar slumber troubles.

Thanks for reading! See you next week :)

Get some sleep