I did a thing.
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So I basically weaned myself off of caffeine.
I drink a full pot of coffee a day, and have for as long as I can remember. A few months back I switched to decaf after noon, but still had 5-6 cups of caffeinated coffee a day.
My sleep has always been bad, and I've been listening to Michael Walker and Peter Attia on the subject and decided to see if I could improve it and to see what the effects might be in the short and medium term.
So instead of switching mid-day, I started mixing caffeinated and decaf (both the same 'make and model' - Pete's Major Dickenson's Blend) and drinking that all day. I started with 50/50, then kept adjusting the percentage until I got to 0/100. I've also done a couple of other interventions to tamp down the cortisol-driven 2am wake ups.
It's been a couple of days and I've noticed:
(1) No caffeine headache. This surprised me. But 'decaf' still has caffeine in it, and can range from ~2% to 10 or even 15% of regular coffee depending on how it's made. I have no way of knowing where my decaf falls in that range.
(2) My sleep has been north of 7 hours a night. My long term average is in the low to mid 5 hour range. I go (literally) years at a time without a singe 8hr night.
All this comes with caveats, It's early days yet. But so far it seems like I've (basically) eliminated caffeine and paid no price.
