5 ms·

Exactly. I feel for you. I am in the same boat. With young kids around I was forced to wake up 2 hours earlier than my circadian rhytm would dictate and it's be

Exactly. I feel for you. I am in the same boat. With young kids around I was forced to wake up 2 hours earlier than my circadian rhytm would dictate and it's been a nightmare so far. I need to compensate each day with even more coffee than normally and my head's just spinning by the end of the day because I am too exhausted. Since my rhytm cannot be forced to the early waking, on average I only sleep 5 hours each night. It's a constant torture.

bombcar 5y ago
When stuck in a similar rut I had to quit caffeine cold turkey for over a month to get my body to settle down and start to acclimate. Definitely cutting out caffeine at noon helps.
smichel17 5y ago
May I suggest: avoid first-thing caffeine; wait until your body has naturally woken up to drink caffiene (or other stimulants). The natural process for waking up (cortisol!) stops when you feel awake. Using caffeine can hasten that moment, but then it doesn't get you any more awake than you would have gotten naturally, and can disrupt your sleep cycle in various ways (for me personally, early caffeine actually makes it harder for me to fall asleep at night; I always thought I was really sensitive to caffeine, but it turns out "...even if I have it first thing in the morning" was more accurately "...only if...").
- tayo42 5y ago
  Idk if this will work for a regular coffee drinker. Part of the coffee first thing in the morning is dealing with the withdrawal from over night.
  - unishark 5y ago
    Caffeine also takes 30-60 minutes to really kick in anyway, meaning your body has to do the waking up on its own either way. The immediate pick-me-up a regular drinker gets from it is a psychological response to the initial low concentration that can start to be felt after 10 or 15 minutes.
  - smichel17 5y ago
    Right. For a regular coffee drinker, coffee has stopped being a boost and is merely a requirement to get back to normal energy.

bombcar 5y ago

When stuck in a similar rut I had to quit caffeine cold turkey for over a month to get my body to settle down and start to acclimate. Definitely cutting out caffeine at noon helps.

smichel17 5y ago

May I suggest: avoid first-thing caffeine; wait until your body has naturally woken up to drink caffiene (or other stimulants). The natural process for waking up (cortisol!) stops when you feel awake. Using caffeine can hasten that moment, but then it doesn't get you any more awake than you would have gotten naturally, and can disrupt your sleep cycle in various ways (for me personally, early caffeine actually makes it harder for me to fall asleep at night; I always thought I was really sensitive to caffeine, but it turns out "...even if I have it first thing in the morning" was more accurately "...only if...").

tayo42 5y ago
Idk if this will work for a regular coffee drinker. Part of the coffee first thing in the morning is dealing with the withdrawal from over night.
- unishark 5y ago
  Caffeine also takes 30-60 minutes to really kick in anyway, meaning your body has to do the waking up on its own either way. The immediate pick-me-up a regular drinker gets from it is a psychological response to the initial low concentration that can start to be felt after 10 or 15 minutes.
- smichel17 5y ago
  Right. For a regular coffee drinker, coffee has stopped being a boost and is merely a requirement to get back to normal energy.