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Caffeine Discoveries
Jan. 17th, 2007 08:59 pmI've drunk coffee at work for the last 25 years, at least.
My first identifiable caffeine addictive episode was before that, in the summer of 1981. That's when I started educating myself on just what I'd gotten on, what it costs to get off, and how to keep my tolerance low, while still allowing the xanthine to be effective.
But our metabolisms change as we age, as I was brutally reminded at Arisia this last weekend; I was utterly disoriented, down, irritable and depressed until I had two cups of coffee. Then it was as if a switch had been thrown in my brain, and I could be myself again.
Okay, I've been here before. It's not a good place.
But there is no way I'm giving up caffeine completely. And not just because I enjoy it; I now have measurements that show my brain works better (and therefore I perform more productively) on caffeine:
My average solution time for the Evil level of WebSudoku without the "pencil" option without caffeine: thirty-five minutes. Best time: twenty-two minutes.
Same as above on caffeine: eighteen minutes. Best time: seven minutes.
Come on. This isn't even close.
Unfortunately, on the night after my first day back to work after the long weekend, I was up until 2:30 am...
I have pulled my coffee "quit time" back from 2pm to 11am; I hope I don't have to pull it back even further. (And no, I'm not cheating by pounding espresso instead.)
My first identifiable caffeine addictive episode was before that, in the summer of 1981. That's when I started educating myself on just what I'd gotten on, what it costs to get off, and how to keep my tolerance low, while still allowing the xanthine to be effective.
But our metabolisms change as we age, as I was brutally reminded at Arisia this last weekend; I was utterly disoriented, down, irritable and depressed until I had two cups of coffee. Then it was as if a switch had been thrown in my brain, and I could be myself again.
Okay, I've been here before. It's not a good place.
But there is no way I'm giving up caffeine completely. And not just because I enjoy it; I now have measurements that show my brain works better (and therefore I perform more productively) on caffeine:
My average solution time for the Evil level of WebSudoku without the "pencil" option without caffeine: thirty-five minutes. Best time: twenty-two minutes.
Same as above on caffeine: eighteen minutes. Best time: seven minutes.
Come on. This isn't even close.
Unfortunately, on the night after my first day back to work after the long weekend, I was up until 2:30 am...
I have pulled my coffee "quit time" back from 2pm to 11am; I hope I don't have to pull it back even further. (And no, I'm not cheating by pounding espresso instead.)
