Friday, March 02, 2007
Caffeine effects...
So, I’m sitting here, at 11:23 pm on a Friday evening getting slowly groggier and groggier due to my sipping on a glass of Coke.
Yes, that’s right, you read that correctly. I’m getting groggy because I’m drinking Coca-Cola. The caffeinated kind, yes [because we know that was your next question].
Caffeine does not make me jittery, suddenly awake, wired, or alert. It actually does the exact opposite. It literally puts me to sleep. I don’t often buy Coke, I never drink coffee, and I can’t really drink caffeinated tea either. You can be sure that if I’m cracking open a can of caffeinated anything, I’ll be sleeping or zombie-like within the hour.
I’m not really sure why either. I certainly haven’t always been this way. In high school, I loved Mountain Dew. Coke was an okay alternative (though Pepsi was nasty…I didn’t touch that stuff). I also got into Surge and Kick when those came out in the late nineties. Lots of caffeine. But somewhere between then and the end of my undergrad years in college created this complete reversal in the effects of caffeine on my system. It no longer gets the jump-start; instead it merely starts going into sleep-mode.
What’s funny is that this post is actually written in two segments – not a common occurrence for me. I usually will write a post all at once, since I generally post in a sort of free-flow, train-of-thought sort of style. [At least, that’s the goal most of the time.] But I couldn’t finish it…my eyes kept drooping to the closing point, my head kept nodding to the side, and my brain got foggier and foggier to the point were I couldn’t string together sentences because I couldn’t keep thoughts straight in my head. It’s so weird – such a strange sensation compared to what one would expect from caffeine. It’s like I took a sleeping pill and it’s slowly but steadily taking effect. Except that it’s not a sleeping pill…it’s Coca-Cola…the king of caffeine!
I’ve been told that this reaction to caffeine could be explained as an immediate high followed almost instantly by a huge crash from the after-effects of the caffeine. I guess that could be true…and yet it doesn’t make sense in my head because I don’t feel any high when I first take a sip of my Coke (or whatever caffeinated thing I’m drinking). But then, perhaps the crash is so instantaneous that I don’t consciously notice the initial high. Who knows?
Just another one of those oddities about life, huh? Indeed…
Yes, that’s right, you read that correctly. I’m getting groggy because I’m drinking Coca-Cola. The caffeinated kind, yes [because we know that was your next question].
Caffeine does not make me jittery, suddenly awake, wired, or alert. It actually does the exact opposite. It literally puts me to sleep. I don’t often buy Coke, I never drink coffee, and I can’t really drink caffeinated tea either. You can be sure that if I’m cracking open a can of caffeinated anything, I’ll be sleeping or zombie-like within the hour.
I’m not really sure why either. I certainly haven’t always been this way. In high school, I loved Mountain Dew. Coke was an okay alternative (though Pepsi was nasty…I didn’t touch that stuff). I also got into Surge and Kick when those came out in the late nineties. Lots of caffeine. But somewhere between then and the end of my undergrad years in college created this complete reversal in the effects of caffeine on my system. It no longer gets the jump-start; instead it merely starts going into sleep-mode.
What’s funny is that this post is actually written in two segments – not a common occurrence for me. I usually will write a post all at once, since I generally post in a sort of free-flow, train-of-thought sort of style. [At least, that’s the goal most of the time.] But I couldn’t finish it…my eyes kept drooping to the closing point, my head kept nodding to the side, and my brain got foggier and foggier to the point were I couldn’t string together sentences because I couldn’t keep thoughts straight in my head. It’s so weird – such a strange sensation compared to what one would expect from caffeine. It’s like I took a sleeping pill and it’s slowly but steadily taking effect. Except that it’s not a sleeping pill…it’s Coca-Cola…the king of caffeine!
I’ve been told that this reaction to caffeine could be explained as an immediate high followed almost instantly by a huge crash from the after-effects of the caffeine. I guess that could be true…and yet it doesn’t make sense in my head because I don’t feel any high when I first take a sip of my Coke (or whatever caffeinated thing I’m drinking). But then, perhaps the crash is so instantaneous that I don’t consciously notice the initial high. Who knows?
Just another one of those oddities about life, huh? Indeed…
// posted by Nina @ 11:23 PM 
