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Your Morning Coffee Is Killing Your Energy Without You Knowing It
Don’t worry, you can get it back
You just woke up. What are the first things you do within the first 30 minutes of waking up?
If you’re like me, you prepare coffee first thing in the morning. I don’t even take time to go to the bathroom first, I reach straight for the kettle to boil water.
I know I’m not alone doing that. If you’re like many professionals in America or Europe, you start by drinking coffee or a caffeine-infused beverage. Is this a good habit to have? Does it really make you more focused?
Yes, momentarily. However, the answer is a lot more complex than that.
It turns out, over time, caffeine is reducing your baseline level of energy. This is a huge finding! The first few times you took coffee, you got extra energy above your regular baseline. As you kept drinking coffee, your baseline started to shrink. Note, however, that according to some studies, this rule doesn’t apply the same way for people suffering from ADHD.
This illustration shows the long-term effects of caffeine:
Essentially, a habitual caffeine taker has the same energy level as someone who doesn’t drink coffee, but only when they drink coffee! If you ever wondered why someone who never drinks coffee has as much energy as you do when drinking coffee, that’s why.
Ari Whitten Ph.D. (Cand.) goes into greater detail in his research about the effects of caffeine on your body. Here’s a passage from one of his articles I find very conclusive:
The person who consumes caffeine every day feels fatigued which results in a lower baseline energy level, and mood, and performance level. They’re stuck in a cycle of terrible energy and performance without caffeine, and then depending on caffeine to get back up to normal function. Then, after the caffeine wears off, their energy comes crashing right back down to their new lower baseline level of energy, mood, and performance.
Yikes! This is what most coffee drinkers and caffeine consumers…
