Mind

Trying to break a lifelong caffeine habit

March 24, 2021 by Edmond Chan Leave a Comment

I’ve drunk a lot of coffee since I was at university, more than 20 years ago now. I think I’d read somewhere that Spanish men were so macho, that for breakfast, they only drank strong black coffee and had a cigarette. I thought that was pretty cool. Angelique rolls her eyes when I tell her that. “That’s the reason you drink coffee?!”, she says.

I used to drink a double cafetiere of coffee with one ‘fingers-worth’ of ground coffee in the bottom of it. Before going to work, I used to have a coffee before leaving the house, have a double espresso from the cafe in the train station, then have one when I got to work, and then one in the late morning, then maybe one after lunch. Perhaps not surprisingly, I used to get a lot of insomnia.

The insomnia has calmed down in recent years, and I attribute that to a new-ish rule of no coffee/caffeine after lunch. So in general, I’ll have a fairly rich and punchy instant espresso when I wake up and another before noon at the latest.

Recently though, I’ve had some insomnia come back, and so I’ve made a connection that I’ve probably been avoiding for years, like an ostrich:

Maybe I’m much more sensitive to caffeine that I previously thought. Maybe I should really cut back on my caffeine, and maybe it would cut down any excess anxiety.

We’ve seen from Why We Sleep that caffeine has a half-life of around 7 hours, so by bedtime, there’s always going to be some caffeine in your system, unless you’re an outlier that can process caffeine better than most.

Day 1 – Monday

I started off with a decaf but soon got tiredness and fogginess. I had to supplement that with a very small amount of instant. I did some quick research into stopping caffeine cold turkey, and it was not recommended! Common side-effects are headaches, jitters, insomnia, irritability. Not good. I resolve to wean off it slowly.

Day 2 – Tuesday

This time, I had a very small amount of instant espresso to start the day. I never measure coffee out – always by eye instead. Today though, I put a flat teaspoon in the cup, and it was watery as hell. But that plus a decaf afterwards meant no headaches and enough oomph to get through the day.

Day 3 – Wednesday

Same as Day 2 – Tuesday.

Day 4 – Thursday

I made the same coffee, but I had just two mouthfuls and then tipped the rest down the sink. I had a decaf after that. Felt pretty good for the rest of the day and even had some unexpected peppiness. Tomorrow, I’ll try just a decaf or two before 10am.

Day 5 to 8

Just decaf on these days. Felt okay and not too tired. But still tired.

Day 9

No coffee, not even decaf.

Oddly, I had some serious insomnia that evening of the 9th day, and the following night as well. Not even a wink of sleep. I had thought that trace amounts of caffeine in my body at night might be keeping me from falling asleep really easily. However, it didn’t seem to make a difference to whether I slept or not. Which was pretty much the whole aim of this experiment! Oh and reduced anxiety. I did notice a reduction in anxiety, which is one plus to take away from this.

Conclusions

Giving up caffeine is hard, particularly if you’ve been drinking buckets of the stuff for decades. I couldn’t really see any benefits in terms of insomnia. There were benefits in terms of reduced anxiety.

The negatives of giving up caffeine is a reduced peppiness and less mental sharpness. Both things I couldn’t live without.

I stopped the experiment around Day 10. I now limit myself to 2 coffees maximum in the morning, and ideally before 11am. I might even forgo the second one some days. My coffees are less strong and instead of double espressos, I’ll order a single shot. (Often, it’s actually the same amount of volume in the cup as what I thought was a double espresso, so maybe I’ve been overpaying all these years.)

Overall, would I recommend this experiment? I’d have to say no. I didn’t see a benefit to getting to caffeine-zero. I do see a benefit of having some caffeine but not lots of it. So we get to the conclusion of trying caffeine in moderation, which isn’t that ground-breaking! But maybe try experimenting with where your level of moderation is. Maybe like me, you’re more sensitive to caffeine than you think. If you think you’re drinking a lot of coffee and it’s potentially giving you anxiety or insomnia, just try reducing your caffeine intake, and timing your drinking to earlier in the day.

7 days of meditation. Here’s what I found

June 23, 2020 by Edmond Chan Leave a Comment

My next 7 day lifestyle experiment was to give 7 days of meditation a go. I’ve always found meditation hard. My mind wanders so much and it was a real effort to try and quiet my mind.

But I want some of its purported benefits such as improved concentration and focus, increased creativity, and overall mental happiness.

I got a week-long free trial to use Calm Premium, a meditation app and found a 30 day course called How To Meditate by Jeff Warren.

Day 1

The course is guided and narrated by Jeff. I sat in a chair and relaxed my face and different parts of my body with each exhale and tried to view my thoughts as things that just happened and not to get frustrated when they came and when I got distracted by them. By distracted, I mean that I got carried away by them. If I started thinking about lunch, for example, I’d think about what was in the fridge, if I needed to go to the shops etc. Literally being carried away by the thoughts instead of just observing them and bringing my attention to what was going on in the moment. When I opened my eyes, I smiled involuntarily and widely. A good sign!

Day 2

The second session was about establishing a ‘homebase’, which is something that you can always bring your attention back to if your mind wanders. The instructor recommends using your breath as a homebase. Watching and observing the breath in and the breath out. He likens meditation to building a mental muscle of concentraion, which is simply being able to focus your attention on what you want to focus on.

I also did a ‘Love and Kindness’ meditation session on the app, which gets you to feel love and kindness to yourself, then to direct that feeling to someone you feel affection towards, and finally to direct this to the world.

Both times, when I opened my eyes, I felt relaxed and peaceful.

Day 3

The third session of How To Meditate in the Calm app is about ‘popping out of your thoughts’ in the same way as if you were in a Greyhound bus and you hopped out and sat in a chair next to the highway and watched Greyhounds pass by. You establish your ‘homebase’ (as in Day 2 above) and when you notice yourself caught up in a thought, just return your attention to your homebase. My homebase was my breath again and it felt like I had a stronger sense of my breath or a greater connection to what it was that I was focusing on (a bit vague I know but it’s hard to explain!)

Day 4

Today’s session was all about developing ‘equanimity’, or as Jeff explained ‘feeling a sense of smoothness’. Not focusing too hard on your homebase or even on concentrating on the meditation itself. Just giving everything the gentlest of your attention.

Days 5, 6, 7

It felt easier to just focus on my homebase (my breath) and to quickly connect with it. I can just close my eyes and focus gently on my breath. Breathing in, breathing out. Feeling the breath on the way in through the nostrils, feeling my stomach expand and my chest raise, and my head moving upwards at the end of the breath in. And on the way out, the way my belly and shoulders fall.

What changes have I noticed?

Nothing really yet. I’m happy that I’ve enjoyed the sessions throughout the week. The Calm app is really easy to use and the instructor is someone that I could relate to. The sessions are well-planned and definitely not repetitive. I think I’ll have to do this for 30 days to really see what changes daily meditation could bring. I’ll report back in a few weeks!

Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried meditation and what it did for you!

I took cold showers for 7 days. Here’s what I found

June 7, 2020 by Edmond Chan Leave a Comment

I’ve heard about a lot of benefits to taking regular cold showers and ice bath therapy. Sportspeople swear by ice baths to speed up recovery after intense workouts. Wim Hof has popularised cold therapy with incredible feats of swimming in ice and climbing mountains like Kilimanjaro without a top on.

Purported benefits of cold showers include:

Improved discipline and mental toughness
Boost to immune system
Boost to mental state and positivity
Invigorating wakeup and start to the day

It’s amazing that something so simple has the power to give immense benefits like these. So let’s give it a go!

Day 1

I always take a shower first thing and this morning, I hopped in and had a nice hot shower. It wasn’t until about a minute in that I realised that I was supposed to start the cold showers today! Doh. So I decided to do what programmes recommend which is to make the last 30 seconds a cold shower.

I turned the temperature down as far as it would go and stepped under it. Boy was it cold. It was fine on my head but as the cold water hit my chest, it made breathing in and out difficult, almost as though my chest was constricted. I stepped away from the jet and just put my head under the water. Cheating a bit I know. So I had to have another cold shower that day.

After my morning run (which was a 10k, the longest I’ve done in years), I went in for a full cold shower, from start to finish. It was still hard to stay completely under it, full-body, but I managed to wash and rinse under the shower. How did I feel afterwards? Pretty invigorated! Angelique had put Eye of the Tiger on the speaker and I was flexing and grunting in front of the mirror! Grunting?! I can see why this is recommended for those with anxiety and depression. It definitely picks you up and you do smile/beam for no reason at all.

Day 2

Straight into a cold shower today. I turned the temperature down as far as it would go from the start and went under face first, with my body slightly behind and just outside the water flow. What a wuss! Realising how wussy that was, I went fully under and sudsed up. I found that I could control my breathing from getting too tight and constricted by taking deep and slow breaths. It felt good again today, and I can already feel that the water doesn’t feel as cold as yesterday.

Day 3

It felt easier today. I just turned the dial to the coldest and turned the water on. I stepped forward into the jet and it was easy to do. Turning around so that the water hit the back of my head and my back was harder though. I felt that familiar constriction in my chest and I had to remember my breathing. Time to go longer tomorrow!

Day 4

I didn’t hesitate today and I actually thought that the water could be colder than it was, even though the dial was pushed all the way to the coldest it could go. I still felt invigorated after and super alert afterwards. At the end of the shower, I turned the temperature back to its normal setting (for Angelique, much like putting the seat down :)), and I felt a bit of hot water, and it felt nice but also like cheating so I dashed out!

Day 5

I almost looked forward to getting into the cold shower this morning. It really does wake you up! I’d had a couple of beers the night before and whilst I wasn’t hungover, I could feel that I wasn’t my sharpest. That all changes once you stand and shiver under the cold water.

Day 6

There was a glimmer of hesitation just before I turned the shower cold and then jumped in. I still get the feeling of invigoration.

Day 7

Straight into the cold shower today and again, it was super-invigorating. Any fogginess from the beers the day before evaporated. Even though it day 7, it won’t be my last cold shower. I love them and I love the effects!

What did I get from this experience?

It’s not easy to articulate it but a feeling of capability – a sense that you can attack the day. I remember a few times say I was running, and I’d think about whether to run further and I thought to myself “Why the hell not?! Do it!”
An invigorating energy shot every morning. I’ve read that some people report not needing any caffeine after a cold shower. It’s a definite jolt out of your pre-shower physical and mental state.

So how can you start your cold showers regime?

Just start! Commit to a week today and make sure you don’t quit early. It’s just 7 days. You’ll feel cold at first for sure. You’ll shiver and want to end it early. But the feeling after that first cold shower with have you beaming from ear-to-ear and you’ll feel ridiculously energised and positive.

Let me know in the comments below how it went!

No alcohol for a month – here’s what I found

December 7, 2019 by Edmond Chan 1 Comment

I wrote the below in August 2019 but it’s been in draft until now. I thought about it again now I’m basically dry until the baby arrives.

I’ve never done a period off booze. Not that I’m a heavy drinker or ever have been. I’ve enjoyed social drinking and good binge session for more than 2 decades now and never felt the need to do a dry January.

In recent years, I’ve enjoyed boozing less and less. I still love the taste of craft beer and good wine, but my hangovers are getting longer and longer. Sometimes they last until the third day.

It isn’t always throbbing headaches. It’s also a feeling of not being too sharp and slightly foggy-headed. I’ve toyed with the idea of would my life improve greatly if I just gave it up.

At the end of July, I went to a craft beer place with one of my best mates and some of his mates from Sussex, and one or three turned into 6 or 7 strong ones, and before I knew it, I couldn’t remember how I got home. I haven’t been like this for a long, long time.

I decided to stop drinking any alcohol for the month of August. I’ve heard about One Year No Beer, where you sign up for a year-long challenge to not drink any alcohol. Testimonials rave as to the benefits of clarity and clear-headedness. A year was a bit too long for me and my Dad was surprisingly sceptical about me giving up booze. His main reason was that he didn’t want me to beat myself up if I ended up having a drink. Surely, it isn’t that hard to give up drinking? I’m not an addict. I don’t drink on weekdays and I generally steer clear of getting drunk these days.

People who give up alcohol generally report vague words like: “more clarity”, “more energy”. It’s all very vague. For me, the thing I’ve noticed the most is that I feel like I have a To-Do list that I just want to keep adding to and I have this urge to consistently smash my to list. I suddenly want to get things done that I would normally put off such as emptying the vacuum cleaner. I get up early on Saturdays and Sundays and go swimming. I just feel ‘on it’. Sharper and more mentally agile. My aggression levels are up a bit (not that I’m shouting at people) but more that I push harder in the gym and better shrug off things that would normally give me anxiety.

I’m also sleeping better. I’m starting to feel tired around 10pm and actively yawning. My eyes start to feel heavy and the pillow on my face is a welcome relief. I don’t sleep all the way through unbroken but this is a serious improvement on my normal sleeping patterns.

Could this be down to something other than not drinking? Quite possibly. I’ve also been exercising a lot. Lots of cardio and lots of weights. That could be raising my testosterone levels. But it could be down to no alcohol. Alcohol increases oestrogen, so it makes sense for the opposite to reduce oestrogen and therefore increase testosterone. My sleep is also better quality and for longer which also has a direct positive effect on testosterone.

I also like the feeling of exerting self-discipline. Not cracking when I would normally fancy a beer, particularly on weekends or at social events. It’s been fortunate to coincide the dry month with a month where I have very little in the calendar in terms of socials. If it had been a month full of 40th birthday celebrations, then it might have been a bit more of a struggle. Peer group pressure is a powerful thing even if wielded with subtlety. I find that there’s even self-peer group pressure, as you don’t want to be the party-pooper.

Do I miss alcohol? Not for the first weekends. I still love the taste of craft beer and good wine. And I still like feeling tipsy and drunk (but not too drunk). That first drink after the break will be interesting. I wonder what I’ll like and dislike about it.

So back to today! How did the rest of August go? By the end of the month, I was gagging for a beer or three. Particularly on some of the blazingly hot and sunny Bank Holiday weekends, when all I wanted to do was have an ice-cold beer. The last weekend fell on the 31st Aug, and it would have been easy to capitulate but I resisted, just to get the full calendar month.

I’m doing it again at the moment as the due date for baby Chan is Boxing Day, and I don’t want to be a bit pissed if suddenly labour comes on. It’s been two weeks without a beer (bar a couple of afternoon glasses of wine last Saturday in the pub). And I’m starting to feel similar effects to what I felt in August: feeling more ‘on it’ and more ‘getting shit done’ and it’s probably no coincidence that I went swimming this morning and about to go for a run.

Give it a go. Commit to a month without booze and see what the effects are. If you’re a social drinker, I’m sure you’ll feel the positive effects!

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker – key takeaways

May 21, 2019 by Edmond Chan 1 Comment

Why We Sleep is a ridiculously valuable book for anyone who doesn’t sleep much on a consistent basis. Whether that’s due to insomnia or to being a total badass who thinks that sleep is for the weak and lazy.

Matthew is someone we should listen to. He’s professor of of neuroscience and psychology at UCLA and before that he was a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He also works as a sleep scientist at Google Life Sciences (Verily)

The main takeaways from Why We Sleep

Consistent sleep deprivation is really, really bad for you. By sleep deprivation, he means anything less than a solid 8 hours of sleep. Walker links consistent sleep deprivation to cancer, dementia, obesity depression, and anxiety. Also, the shorter you sleep, the shorter you live. All in all, really, really bad.
We have a chemical called adenosine that is continually produced from the moment we wake up. It builds and builds throughout the day until we can resist sleep no longer. This is called sleep pressure.
Caffeine blocks the receptors that register the adenosine build up and this is why coffee temporarily makes us feel more awake and alert. If caffeine is still in your system at bedtime, it will likely keep you from feeling tired.
Caffeine has an average half life of 5 to 7 hours. This means that 5 to 7 hours after your last coffee, half the caffeine is still left in your system. And in 10-14 after your last coffee, a quarter of that caffeine is still in your system.
Drink less caffeine! And definitely not too late i.e. not after 12pm

Professor Walker’s top 12 tips for getting a better night’s sleep

Stick to a sleep schedule. Get up and go to be at the same time every day. Walker highlights this as the most important of his sleep tips.
Exercise is great. At least 30 mins most days and not too close to bedtime.
Avoid caffeine and nicotine. They make it hard to get to sleep and can affect how deeply you do sleep.
Avoid alcohol before bed. It will stop you getting into REM sleep and you may wake up in the middle of the night when the effects have worn off.
Avoid large meals and drinks late at night. This can cause indigestion which interferes with sleep.
Avoid medicines that disrupt your sleep
No naps after 3pm.
Relax and unwind before bed like reading or listening to music
Take a hot bath before bed
Dark, cool, gadget-free bedroom
Get enough sunlight exposure. This helps regulate sleep patterns. At least 30 mins of natural sunlight each day and preferably in the morning. Turn down the lights before bedtime.
Don’t lie in bed awake.

For me, the caffeine control has been incredible in helping me get more sleep.

Walker describes sleep deprivation as:

the greatest public health challenge we face in the 21st century in developed nations. If we wish to avoid the suffocating noose of sleep neglect, the premature death it inflicts, and the sickening health it invites, a radical shift in our personal, cultural, professional, and societal appreciation of sleep must occur.

I believe it is time for us to reclaim our right to a full night of sleep, without embarrassment or the damaging stigma of laziness. In doing so, we can be reunited with that most powerful elixir of wellness and vitality, dispensed through every conceivable biological pathway. then we may remember what it feels like to be truly awake during the day, infused with the very deepest plentitude of being.

Pick up a copy of Why We Sleep here.

Get more sleep!