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Comment by kick_in_the_dor | Hacker News Reader

I'm currently experimenting with a low caffeine (no coffee, mostly green/herbal tea) lifestyle after having the stomach flu (no coffee for a week) and thinking it was the perfect time to give it a shot.

My god, I've never been more clear-headed in my life. My working memory seems greatly improved. I'm able to work out complex problems in my head that previously I would struggle to keep my "mental eye" on. Moreover, I'm much less anxious in general and generally much happier.

I think I'm ADHD/anxiety-prone and I think that, while coffee for some with ADHD really helps, the increased anxiety made it difficult for "long, slow" mental processing to occur in my head.

A confounding factor is that I've also recently introduced a green powder in my diet, but the effect of no-coffee has been much more immediate.

I love coffee and never thought I'd be able give it up, but I don't even miss it now...

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Mostly the same here, except there's a specific problem around giving up caffeine - a clear reduction in motivation.

As I recall caffeine has an effect of "enhancing" dopamine sensitivity in the brain which is the likely cause of this effect. Could probably reset this over time, but don't really have multiple weeks to wait this out!

> Mostly the same here, except there's a specific problem around giving up caffeine - a clear reduction in motivation.

Haha, I definitely agree with that! Coffee is certainly a great way to get your brain in the mood to do work, any work at all.

One thing that really helps (really the base "pillar" which all health-optimization rests on) is making sure you get good sleep. I aim for 8-9 hours of being in bed per night. I've spent a lot of time working on getting good sleep.

I switched to half-caff coffee and don't personally experience caffeine withdrawal anymore when I go without. I think it weened me off the need.

I still drink it in the morning just because I enjoy it.

Nice, i should try that out. Is half-caff decaf, or is it a third class?

I have no idea, but you can buy coffees that are lower caffeine varieties. Robusta isn’t generally great tasting but generally has a lot of caffeine and is added to blends for this reason (and because it’s cheap).

Trying full strength but low caffeine varieties might be a nice option.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_caffeine_coffee

Thanks!

Folgers makes and sells a “half caff” canister but you can make your own by just 50/50 mixing regular and decaf.

Is the green powder matcha?

No, it's a powder of a bunch of "superfood" greens (mine is "Green Vibrance". I mention this because I did a lot of research to find a reputable brand that isn't pure garbage).

Funny enough, I was actually experimenting with matcha+coffee before going no-coffee. It also greatly improved by mental abilities. This reinforced my thinking that it was the anxiety all along that was causing me to feel mentally cloudy.

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