There is a single thing that you can do to sleep better, have more energy, think clearer, and be a better husband and new dad. In addition, this helps with better work outs, better hydration, better skin, less stress, and more calm.
The one thing that will help you improve in all these areas is to quit coffee and start drinking tea.
… And I probably just lost half my readers. But those of you still with me please listen to my experience.
I have been completely off coffee now for about 11 months.
Eleven months ago, my wife was four months pregnant with our baby girl. We had just taken ownership of our new house and were renovating the kitchen and repairing the roof. I felt that my career was stalled because I felt overwhelmed with the things going on in my personal life. I had a lot on my plate. It did not help that it was in the middle of winter so I was impacted by seasonal affective disorder.
So I decided that I needed to do something to shake myself off. Almost randomly, I decided to give up coffee.
I had a long love affair with coffee. I started drinking the stuff in my university days. I loved the taste, smell, and brain-jacking effect of coffee. I had a two-cup a day habit, but I got the mega-large cups.
I have been running on coffee for years and years and years.
The idea of giving it up thus represented to me a BIG change. I needed a big change eleven months ago, so I dove in.
My rules were simple: absolutely no coffee, but green tea is allowed after the first week. I figured that tea was a good alternative to coffee as it had less chemicals, contained helpful anti-oxidants, and had much less caffeine. I also thought it was a good idea to go completely cold turkey from caffeine for the first week so that I would adapt faster.
The first four days really sucked.
In addition to being a stimulant, the caffeine in coffee screws with the vasculature in your brain and modifies how blood flows through it. When you go cold turkey, your brain’s vasculature reverts back to its native state and it takes a while to adapt.
This adaptation period means really painful withdrawal headaches!
For four days, my head pounded. Like an idiot, I decided to start my experiment on a Wednesday, which meant hat I had to power through three work days with massive caffeine withdrawal.
Over the weekend, things got much better. By the Sunday, I woke up with no headaches at all. I went to church that day and sang “Hallelujah!”
From then on, I was a changed man. Everything became much better in my life.
Sleep got better
Oh man, I was sleeping like a baby! (ok, scratch that… babies don’t sleep well at all, who came up with that phrase??) Let’s say that I was sleeping better than I ever had in my adult life.
Before I quit coffee, I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep and staying there. After I quit coffee, my sleep quality improved by a quantum leap. Every night at the same time I could plop down on my bed, give my wife a kiss and promptly drift off to sleep.
Energy became sustainable
Coffee gave me a spike of mental energy and then an energy crash when the effect wore off. I needed another jolt of java to keep me going. It was an unsustainable method for maintaining mental acuity.
When I switched to tea, the lower caffeine content gave me a mellower buzz and no caffeine crash. Also, I think that there must be other chemicals in coffee other than caffeine that make me go crazy, as the switch to tea had a huge positive effect on my overall well-being. My energy is now much more sustainable throughout the day.
Focus sharpened
My mind cleared up after quitting coffee. I was able to focus on deep work and finish complex tasks far more efficiently than before.
Work got more productive
After I quit the devil bean, I became a frickin’ workhorse. I started to take on and complete challenging projects at work. I started and completed a book for guys on how to handle themselves when they have a newborn baby (this work will be published soon, so sign up for my newsletter for the heads up). I managed to get our home renos completed without the feeling of overwhelm that I had before.
Exercise happened
I joined a discount gym and started going regularly again.
Family life got happier
My wife said that I became a better husband after I quit coffee. I was calmer and more attentive. This definitely helped once Victoria was born.
Zen was discovered
My overall stress levels plummeted. I learned how to be mindful. Life simply became more enjoyable.
Appearance improved
My skin cleared up. The flushness that I often had when I was jacked on coffee went away.
I realize that the jury is split in the scientific research about the health effects of coffee; however, from my experience, quitting coffee made a huge improvement in my life.
While I was going through my withdrawal headaches, I read many blogs about people who had also quit coffee after many years of use and abuse and their stories kept me going. Just Google “quitting coffee” and you will see this is actually a thing.
Take a one month coffee-free challenge.
Give up coffee for a month and see how it goes. Anyone can abstain from anything for a month. Whenever you have a trigger for drinking coffee—it can be a coffee run with colleagues or walking by your favorite neighborhood café—pick up some green tea instead.
After your one month see how you feel. See if you are sleeping better. Ask your wife or girlfriend if you are becoming a better partner. Check your stress levels. Check your happiness levels.
I think you will be surprised at how much good can come from a small thing like giving up coffee!
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If you enjoyed this post, check out my latest book, A Dad’s Guide to Great Sleep. You will learn: why Great Sleep is so important to your family’s well-being, Seven Sleep Habits that drastically improve your sleep hygiene with little added effort, and how to construct time-efficient Sleep Rotas for your whole family.