Coffee. Yes coffee. Do you really feel a difference ?

[fluidistic]

Coffee. Yes coffee. Do you really "feel a difference"?

Instead of pointlessly debating whether caffeine affects our body (which it does of course), I want to know whether you really "feel a difference" when you drink coffee.
Does it prevent you from sleeping?
Can you stay concentrated on your studies for a longer time/and or later at night?


I really love coffee for its taste, I drink 1 strong and big coffee (about 350 ml) per day at least, yet I feel absolutely nothing.
I don't feel it perturbs my sleep or make it touger to reach. It takes me generally over 2 hours of laying in my bed before I get to find sleep, no matter if I drink a coffee just before sleeping.
I don't feel it helps me to keep concentrated for a longer time when I study, etc.
I know my heart beat is very likely faster after drinking a coffee but apparently that's not something I can notice, unless of course if I'd measure it with a chronometer.

On the other hand I can feel a difference if I drink a 200 ml glass of beer at 4% alcohol.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I avoid caffeine because it keeps me up all day. Once, when my daughter was about 10, she drank a cup of my wife's coffee. She was bouncing off the walls.

 

[Evo]

Caffeine makes me sleepy. Shortly after I have a couple of cups, I'll have to take a nap. I started a ritual of having a large cup of coffee right before bedtime when I was in my teens. It's a comfort thing.

 

[WannabeNewton]

I've drank coffee twice in my life but in a rather large amount; I didn't feel any change. What I did feel was the horrible bitter taste. I went back to Welch's grape juice immediately =D.

 

[Kholdstare]

I avoid caffeine because it keeps me up all day. Once, when my daughter was about 10, she drank a cup of my wife's coffee. She was bouncing off the walls.

WoW. Must be a spectacular scene. Did she also reach the opposite wall from where she bounced off?

Caffeine makes me sleepy. Shortly after I have a couple of cups, I'll have to take a nap. I started a ritual of having a large cup of coffee right before bedtime when I was in my teens. It's a comfort thing.

Hmm. Caffeine does not affect you the usual way. Maybe those doctors could use Coffee instead of anesthetics on you.

 

[fluidistic]

Wow!
I was not expecting such kind of -funny- answers.
To wannabeNewton, I've tried a few times to drink wine in my life but could not go further than a single small gulp so I feel your "pain" :)

 

[WannabeNewton]

To wannabeNewton, I've tried a few times to drink wine in my life but could not go further than a single small gulp so I feel your "pain" :)

My mom drinks so much coffee per day and I always ask her why because I didn't get how someone could consume something so bitter all the time. It didn't even seem like it was making her any more productive. She said it became like second nature after a while.

 

[renz]

I'm a little bit sensitive to caffeine I think. I can't drink half a cup after 3pm or I will be up way past midnight. I also feel jittery even after a cup of latte.
I was up until 4am last night because I went to a coffee shop and ordered a decaf latte. It was definitely not decaf. I didn't realize that until I drank almost half the cup.

 

[Tosh5457]

Yes if affects me, if I'm sleepy and take 1 small cup of coffee it takes me off that sleepy state very fast. If I take like 3 small cups of coffee or more, I get very agitated and can't stop moving :tongue: It affects different people differently, I know a guy that gets sleepy by drinking coffee, and he drinks 7-8 cups of coffee some days.

 

[Mute]

I rarely drink coffee. I much prefer the iced coffees to hot coffees, as well, but even those I try not to drink often. One of the reasons I avoided coffee when I was younger is that I saw all of these other students (especially the Master's students in the first lab I worked in!) being seemingly reliant on the stuff to function, so I decided it was better not to get hooked on using caffeine as a crutch to function throughout the day!

That said, I did used to drink quite a lot of diet coke. I didn't drink it for the caffeine, though. Then again, I've cut back in recent years, and I do feel more tired that I used to, but I think that's just a sign that I'm not as young as I used to be. (Sadly, I'm still pretty young. =P )

 

[Borek]

Depends on the strength. Typical coffee doesn't wake me up, if anything, it makes me sleepy. But many years ago we had some work to do at my friend's home, he offered me a coffee - and it was so strong I thought my heart will jump out through my ears. Good thing it was 10 am.

 

[Charmar]

I chose yes.
If I take a break from caffeine for a spell and then have some I feel it.
If I drink 2 Java Monsters, I for sure feel that.
When I have my 2 Mountain Dews after I get up for work in the evening, I don't notice a difference, or I am so used to it, the effect isn't profound enough to for me to notice.

 

[lisab]

Definitely yes. I feel a rush about 15 minutes after I drink it. And it doesn't fade quickly - if I drink coffee after noon, I'll have trouble sleeping that night.

But sometimes if I drink too much it will make me feel kind of drowsy, yet if I do manage to get to sleep when I'm 'under the influence' it's not a restful sleep.

 

[I like Serena]

Yes. Coffee boosts me.
At work I drink it throughout the day.
The downside is that I have little energy in the evening.

One time at a friend's place, I felt a bit low on energy and drank 3 coffee in a row, but it didn't help at all and I was even starting to feel a bit nauseous.
Then it turned out that this "friend" had coffee without cafeine!
I have never touched that stuff again!

 

[fluidistic]

Thanks all for the replies! :D
Interesting.

 

[collinsmark]

Is there such a thing as "life before coffee"? Is there, really. It all sounds kind of speculative to me.

 

[phosgene]

Every time I drink one of the massively oversized caffeinated beverages at a cinema, I can't sleep until very early hours of the morning (4AM or so).

 

[FreeMitya]

At first it didn't give me any extra energy, then one day when I was fairly tired it finally worked. I haven't looked back since. Only on mornings when I'm in really high spirits and have a lot of energy will I not have a cup. However, it makes me urinate a lot, so I need to control my intake when I go out to places where a washroom isn't readily available, or when my destination is relatively far away (I walk everywhere, so travel takes a lot longer).

 

[TurtleMeister]

I've experimented with the effects of caffeine off and on for several decades. It's potency for me seems to vary depending on how regularly I consume it. If I stay off of it for several months and then drink one cup of coffee, it's effects are much more noticeable than if I consume one cup every day. It's effects are the usual for me. It helps alleviate sleepiness and makes me more alert. However, too much will make me nervous and jittery.

I have recently discovered that coffee contains acrylamide. But I don't think it contains as much as potato chips and french fries, so I'm not too concerned about it right now. If you go to a coffee shop in California you may notice a warning sign posted as a result of prop 65.

 

[Nathew]

Coffee. Yes coffee. Do you really "feel a difference"?

Personally, I'm not really a fan. Not sure why but it always upsets my stomach. Not badly enough to avoid it all the time, but is very rare that I do drink coffee. I don't love the taste and it's, IMO, expensive as hell.
But to answer the question, I find it only very slightly affects me. It only keeps me slightly more awake but I definitely still have to focus just as hard.

 

[Ramanujan1729]

I always use Nescafe Classics [Black coffee] when i get tired and sleepy at night. it works.

 

[FreeMitya]

I have recently discovered that coffee contains acrylamide. But I don't think it contains as much as potato chips and french fries, so I'm not too concerned about it right now. If you go to a coffee shop in California you may notice a warning sign posted as a result of prop 65.

After a quick search this is what I found on coffee specifically:

Over a thousand chemicals have been reported in roasted coffee: more than half of those tested (19/28) are rodent carcinogens. There are more rodent carcinogens in a single cup of coffee than potentially carcinogenic pesticide residues in the average American diet in a year, and there are still a thousand chemicals left to test in roasted coffee. This does not mean that coffee is dangerous but rather that animal cancer tests and worst-case risk assessment, build in enormous safety factors and should not be considered true risks.

Full text (it's worth a read):

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1007971204469

With so many people drinking coffee worldwide, it seems to me that there would be a lot more discussion about this if the acrylamide (and other potentially dangerous chemicals) levels in coffee posed a significant risk.

 

[1977ub]

The hip happening bio-hack way to drink coffee nowadays is with butter in it.

http://www.dailypercolator.com/food_ventures/bulletproofcoffee/

 

[TurtleMeister]

After a quick search this is what I found on coffee specifically:



Full text (it's worth a read):

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1007971204469

With so many people drinking coffee worldwide, it seems to me that there would be a lot more discussion about this if the acrylamide (and other potentially dangerous chemicals) levels in coffee posed a significant risk.

Thanks for the link. I agree, the dangers of these rodent carcinogens in our food is overblown. My coffee consumption is very moderate anyway, so I'm not worried about it.

 

[FreeMitya]

Thanks for the link. I agree, the dangers of these rodent carcinogens in our food is overblown. My coffee consumption is very moderate anyway, so I'm not worried about it.

Mine too, just thought I'd provide some reassurance for those who tend obsess over things like this.

 

[Bacle2]

Isn't depletion of minerals an issue when drinking coffee?

 

[Just Steve]

Caffeine does not adversely affect me...I can drink a potfull just before bedtime and not be wakefull...maybe I have developed a tolerance to it?

 

[coalago]

A short time excited after drinking it.

 

[Aero51]

Yes, I get easily addicted to caffeine. I can easily drink 5-10 black teas in a row and i start to feel anxious and jittery

 

[Drakkith]

I don't feel anything from caffeine. Heck, I take 20 mg of adderall (a mix of amphetamines) a day and it barely manages to keep me coherent.

 

[ZombieFeynman]

Isn't depletion of minerals an issue when drinking coffee?

Can you explain why you think this would be so?

 

[Aero51]

Excessive urination may be why

 

[Drakkith]

Excessive urination may be why

How would that deplete minerals?

 

[cjl]

I can drink 2 or 3 energy drinks in a row (at 160mg caffeine each) and not feel a thing. It might help me stay awake if I'm really tired, but I'm not even sure if it does that (and it certainly doesn't mitigate the sleepiness). I'm similarly insensitive to a lot of other chemicals too though - I am relatively insensitive to alcohol (I don't feel it until I'm most of the way through 12oz of a 10% stout, for example), and when I had my wisdom teeth removed, I needed to have significantly more anesthetic than the dentist had originally estimated. I do still drink caffeine from time to time, but it's largely just in the hope that it will help me stay awake (even if only slightly), since I don't notice a significant effect.

 

[Evo]

I can drink 2 or 3 energy drinks in a row (at 160mg caffeine each) and not feel a thing. It might help me stay awake if I'm really tired, but I'm not even sure if it does that (and it certainly doesn't mitigate the sleepiness). I'm similarly insensitive to a lot of other chemicals too though - I am relatively insensitive to alcohol (I don't feel it until I'm most of the way through 12oz of a 10% stout, for example), and when I had my wisdom teeth removed, I needed to have significantly more anesthetic than the dentist had originally estimated. I do still drink caffeine from time to time, but it's largely just in the hope that it will help me stay awake (even if only slightly), since I don't notice a significant effect.

I'm exactly the same way, including general anesthesia, they have to keep giving me more and more to put me to sleep, the anesthesiologist always says "you should be asleep already", and I always tell them it's going to take much more than they guessed, and even worse, I wake up before the procedure is over and they have to put me back under, of course the doctor tells the nurse I won't remember waking up, WRONG.. I wonder what it is about us that gives us an overall high tolerance against sedatives and stimulants?