The Caffeine Free Female: Withdrawal, Weary, Worth it?

As of writing this post, I have been caffeine-free for 6 weeks. In this post I share the process, the withdrawal, and how I feel on the other side of it.

I tossed around the idea of quitting caffeine for a while, to give my body a break from it. Trying for a couple days, giving in and drinking some tea, rebounding HARD and drinking more than I did before, then trying to reduce my intake again. I've never been a coffee drinker, tea has always been my drink of choice. Lately? Matcha lattes, iced or hot. I'd get them from Starbucks, but was quickly spending over $200/month, so I made them at home instead. That easy access to make them any time only increased my intake.

I never found caffeine to be the drinkable energizer-bunny for me that I witnessed other people experience. I found that it helped stabilize my mood and kept me from being irritable, but I never felt the "buzz" that people talk about. Even if I was tired and drank caffeine, it didn't wake me up or give me energy. Due to this, I never realized how much it was affecting me until I stopped consuming it.

We all know our energy levels change throughout our cycles. For me, day 2 is always my high-energy, get-everything-done, start-new-projects and be-productive-AF day. So day 2 of my last cycle, in September, I felt good. I woke up at 5am (my typical wake-up time for work). Brian wanted to keep sleeping, so I got up and decided to head down into Washington (state) because I had a package waiting for me at 24/7 Parcel. I was awake and energized, and decided to skip the matcha. Brian was still asleep when I got home so I sat at my desk and started working, choosing to continue this caffeine-free day.

The next day I still felt good. I still didn't want a matcha. The third day I thought about it, but I recognized that I just wanted it because I like the taste; I was still energized and feeling good, and I didn't need the caffeine, I wanted the matcha. So I decided, this is the time. I've already started, and it was easy. Keep going. See what happens when you cut out caffeine altogether.

Oh buddy, did I find out.

The rest of week 1 was fine. It wasn't until week 2 I started feeling it. I was irritable and fed up with work, I had no patience, I felt tired by 10am, and I had a headache. A headache that would last the next 4 weeks. At the end of week 3 was our 5 day group trip to the Elizabeth Parker Hut in Yoho National Park. I was high on life for that trip, and SO stoked to be in such a beautiful place with such amazing friends. I didn't find much difficulty while out there aside from the headache, although I didn't sleep well at all any of the nights. I attribute that more so to the sleeping conditions than the caffeine withdrawal. On the day we left, I felt an intense headache and a mildly sore throat...

Now, I've always had hormonal dysregulation due to health problems, stress and an athletic lifestyle. So it's very difficult for me to attribute what symptoms are from what root cause, and I can't say for sure what caused what, though I'm sure everything had a part in contributing to what happened over the next month.

As I said, after leaving the EP hut I had a headache and sore throat. My best guess is that the sore throat is because the hut was so stuffy and humid while we slept, and I think the headache was from a combination of lack of sleep, lack of caffeine (I did of course have that week-long headache leading up to our EP hut trip), lack of proper nutrition, and stress. Over the next two weeks (weeks 4 and 5 of no caffeine) I was irritable, and went through two weeks of heavy mood swings and depression. I was full-on questioning my entire life path, wanting to quit everything and lay in bed indefinitely. I can't attribute all that to the lack of caffeine, but I think it contributed to my inability to handle stress, which is where everything fell apart for me during those two weeks.

My cycle was then late. It went from 28/29 days to 36. Again, I have a history of hormonal dysfunction so what was the root cause? Probably stress, and I believe the caffeine withdrawal added to that stress. Instead of starting my next cycle at the end of week 4, I got it at the end of week 5.

At the end of week 4/beginning of week 5 I had about 4 days of intense night sweats and overheating during the day. Think menopause-style hot flashes. Near the end of week 5, just before my cycle started, I started sleeping well. Really well. When we sleep better, everything in life goes better. That, in combination with starting my next cycle, improved everything: my mood stabilized, the headache went away, my throat became less and less sore through week 6, and I was fully engaged in my life and work again. Plus, the hot flashes and night sweats stopped after the first good night's sleep. My window of tolerance grew bigger, and minor stresses that would have ruined my day just a week prior became unnoticeable.

Now, at the end of week 6, I'm still sleeping very well. Even with sleeping a little less the past three nights compared to usual (due to working late), I still feel great. I attribute the quality of my sleep to being caffeine free; I don't remember having slept this well in years! I'm very curious what happens over the next month, and I'm hopeful I will continue feeling better over the next few weeks. I believe my cycle will re-regulate as well since I'm sleeping better and am less stressed.

So, was it worth it?

I firmly believe so! I can't overstate how good I've been feeling in the mornings after having slept so well. I will continue tracking my symptoms, sleep quality and any other notables over the coming weeks and months, and if there's anything else worth sharing I will write another post to follow up!

Share your experience with caffeine, whether you're caffeine-free or not what the process of eliminating caffeine was like for you in the comments!

Keep growing, Wild Woman.