How to Detox Yourself From Caffeine
Caffeine is an addictive drug that significantly affects your wakefulness and mood. Yet the truth is that when you feel that morning cup of coffee work its magic, you are probably just experiencing the disappearance of the withdrawal symptoms that built up overnight. In fact, you will find that if you eliminate caffeine, you will be more alert around the clock. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Take a couple of days to write down your normal caffeine consumption. Include all food and drinks that contain caffeine.
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Because coffee and energy drinks have significantly more caffeine than other sources, eliminate all other sources of caffeine first and concentrate on these.
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Pick a day that you have off from work or other responsibilities. Use this day to kick-start the process and try to go the full day without caffeine. You may drink decaf coffee instead of regular coffee, and water or herbal tea in place of other beverages. Get plenty of sleep and exercise to reduce drowsiness.
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The next day, drink half as much caffeine as you did before. For coffee, the best way to do this is to mix half decaf and half regular while drinking the same amount of coffee. You will find that this greatly decreases your withdrawal symptoms from the day before. Continue this for one week.
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The next week, reduce your intake to 25 percent of what you originally consumed.
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The next week, eliminate caffeine altogether. Note that decaf coffee has a small amount of caffeine, so you should decide whether you want to completely eliminate coffee. Depending on how much caffeine you consumed before, it may take another week or so for the withdrawal effects to disappear.
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Tips & Warnings
If you get a headache, take medication, but be careful to avoid medications that contain caffeine.
Avoid alcohol while you are weaning yourself from caffeine. The effect of a hangover may feel worse when compounded by the effects of caffeine withdrawal.
Avoid buying coffee by the cup. Even though you may ask for half-caf, some coffee shop coffees pack much more caffeine than the average cup of coffee.
Do not try to go cold turkey if you consume more than a few hundred milligrams of caffeine daily, or you will experience severe headaches, dizziness and loss of concentration.
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