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I am an over-the-road truck driver. For years I consumed up to a pot of coffee a day, if not more.  Then the sleep issues started.  Once I was diagnosed with sleep apnea I became hyper  vigilant about anything having to do with the quality of my sleep   To my surprise, I discovered I have a gross IN-tolerance to even the slightest amount of caffeine.  This so astonished me considering my past track record of consumption!    If I drink a single cup of coffee at 6AM,  it's still in my system at 2AM the following morning and I have difficulties falling asleep.  I have learned this goes for ANYTHING with caffeine in it - soda pop, chocolate, hot chocolate, even decaf coffee has just enough of a trace left in it to have me tossing and turning for hours in pursuit of sleep.  

Several years ago I had a severe allergic reaction to ibuprofen.  I had taken it for years with no problem and then suddenly, out of the blue, I go into anaphalactic shock  complete with hives so bad it swelled my throat shut.   The Doctors advised me to avoid it in the future. Duh!  ( ya think?)

So here is my question, is it possible to "grow into" a caffeine intolerance?  Has anybody else experienced this?  Is it just an old age issue or could I becoming allergic to it?  

Thank-you in advance for your input.  I love this website!  You have taught me a lot!

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Kate, just surmising here, but I think we can grow intolerant of anything we have used for years.  One day it just doesn't work anymore, or in your case works way too well.  It seems your body has grown extremely sensitive to caffeine.  It's the chocolate I would miss!

Do you have any trouble staying awake?

Kate,

I don't have the same issue, but this is very interesting. It is obviously possible to develop allergies out of the blue to different things, so why not caffeine? I'm sure you've done research on your own, but just in case, here is an article that includes the most commonly reported symptoms associated with caffeine allergies. http://www.energyfiend.com/caffeine-allergy-top-20-symptoms

I don't think you developed this. It was probably there all along and your untreated apnea was such a large compounding factor that you did not understand how much caffeine was affecting you.

I read a study where they took college students who said they could drink caffeine in the evening and sleep perfectly well all night. They put them in the sleep lab and it showed they were sleeping poorly despite their perception of sleeping well.

They had the subjects wean themselves off all caffeine and then two weeks later they put them in the sleep lab again. This time the lab results showed they really were sleeping well.

Another thing to consider is that before you were treated for sleep apnea you were badly sleep deprived every day. This sleep deprivation allowed you to fall asleep easily despite having lots of caffeine in your system.

Now being treated you are not nearly so sleep deprived so anything that is a negative for sleep, like caffeine, will have a more pronounced and more noticeable negative affect on your sleep.

I also cannot drink any caffeine even that one cup in the morning without a noticeable impact on my sleep. I sometimes eat two small chocolates at lunch but never after midday.

Your experience with caffeine sounds completely normal to me. Glad you figured it out.

Good luck.

I think Banyon is right - some people are just totally caffeine intolerant. His post serves as a reminder to be extra vigilant about caffeine intake, even if you are not intolerant. It is, after all, a powerful drug, despite what anybody says.

Wow!  Kate comes up with all these great items! (Computer use at night, for example.)

 

I'm already weaning myself from using my computer at night, thanks to Kate's post on the matter. (It seems to be making a difference.)

 

I love coffee; I ADORE chocolate.

 

O.K., now I'm cutting out caffeine and (*sob*) chocolate. Worse, I just bought a lot of really good coffee beans on sale -- several months worth, in fact.

 

But if caffeine is afflicting my sleep, it too has gotta go!

be strong

I drink a couple large cups/ day. Doubt there is any point of day or night when my body is free of caffeine. Would a home sleep test measure sleep fragmentation due to caffeine or just problems with airflow?

Mike,

Several times in my life I've managed to quit drinking coffee. Every single time, I've felt better -- calmer, more relaxed -- and every time I've gone back to caffeine.

I fully understand why smokers have trouble quitting.

I can actually feel the difference, even with just my single morning cup of STRONG coffee, and truth to tell: I even kinda like the jolt. (I grind my own beans every morning for that cup.)

That said, I'm planning to cut out caffeine (including my beloved chocolate) and stay off all caffeine for two weeks. If I notice a meaningful difference in my sleep after this (miserable) experiment, I'll let you know. I let everybody know!!

Sad to say, I suspect I'm going to notice a difference....  ;-(



Mike said:

I drink a couple large cups/ day. Doubt there is any point of day or night when my body is free of caffeine. Would a home sleep test measure sleep fragmentation due to caffeine or just problems with airflow?

 

You need EEG to see sleep fragmentation and sleep architecture irregularities. None of the home equipment is capable of EEG.

 

Cheap, easy thing to do is quit at least temporarily and see if you have subjective feeling of improvement. I would lay some money that two large cups per day is causing problems for you.

If you decide to quit make sure to gradual taper off over a week or so. If you are drinking 32 or 40 ounces I would drop 4 ounces per day - acutally measure out your daily allocation. Quicker cessation might cause bad headaches or other withdrawal symptoms.

 

 

 

Let me add that caffeine gives me a wonderful mood lift and energy boost.

If some will invent a pill that would scavenge it all out of my system just before bedtime I would be back into caffeine. hahaha

In the meantime I will use exercise for the great mood lift and energy boost.


Every time I quit when I was a heavy coffee-drinker, I did it gradually. Withdrawal was awful, otherwise.

Now that I'm down to One Serious Cup in the morning (I lived in Europe: I know about good, strong coffee -- and love it that way) now that I'm down to that single cup, I've found that I can eliminate coffee without all the bad withdrawal symptoms. If I develop a headache, however, sometimes I immediately drink half a cup of coffee, which  usually does the trick. Not always, but usually.

Again, kudos to Kate: she's the one who brought this to our attention. I suspect there's something to it.

I'm already trying to think of a different, pleasant substitute for that wonderful cup of morning joe that I've enjoyed for so many decades.

Thinking....thinking...thinking....

Banyon said:

If you decide to quit make sure to gradual taper off over a week or so. If you are drinking 32 or 40 ounces I would drop 4 ounces per day - acutally measure out your daily allocation. Quicker cessation might cause bad headaches or other withdrawal symptoms.

 

 

 

Is decaf a terrible option?  I know- I can't imagine not having my one cup in the morning and I don't get any energy or feeling of well being.  It wears offf well before bedtime.

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