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Comment by rcthompson | Hacker News Reader

I personally have never been a caffeine user. I had always assumed that if I used it regularly, my body would eventually counteradjust so that I would require coffee just to bring me back to my original baseline level of alertness. Can anyone comment on whether this is the case?

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I have a purely anecdotal case. Before my Junior year of college, I had drank about four cups (two coffee cups) of coffee every morning since I was twelve. That's about nine years of coffee consumption for me. I stopped one day a year-or-so ago, and besides the two-day migraine, it didn't have any noticeable effect on me thereafter. I still drink coffee every now and then, especially during points where I'm lodging with my parents. I can't tell a difference when I drink coffee or not, other than I think more clearly with coffee. I'm not jittery with or without, or craving coffee abnormally.

Again, anecdotal. I have no idea if this is the general case.

That means you adjusted back quickly, but it doesn't really answer the question. Which is: If you have coffee almost every day, does it still provide you an alertness boost?

I drink coffee everyday (somedays four or more espressos). I also stop drinking coffe for a few days at least twice every semester, just in case.

Even at peak coffee, more coffee still stimulates my mind and makes me infinitely more focused. The only times coffee hasn't worked is when I'm genuinely sleep deprived, although I typically get 6-8 hours of sleep.

I hesitate to contribute anecdotal evidence but my experience has been very similar. In college, I routinely took 200 mg caffeine pills and I would always stop cold turkey after exams, when I was usually hitting about 300 mg a day. Definitely felt the alertness almost every time I consumed more caffeine and, surprisingly, never had any withdrawal symptoms outside of drowsiness.

I would not conclude an effect of caffeine ingestion. You may be getting the alertness boost from placebo effect, conditioned response or even just the fact of taking a break. I get an alertness boost from getting up to fill a glass of water, for example. I don't have to actually drink from the glass to get the effect.

> Which is: If you have coffee almost every day, does it still provide you an alertness boost?

I have been on and off coffee several times and my anecdote is that if you have coffee almost every day, it does provide you an alertness boost, but:

Your average alertness over the course of a day with coffee (when you're adjusted to it) and over a day without coffee (when you're adjusted to that) are about the same. The one with coffee just has more ups and downs. Without coffee it's more even. IMHO that evenness is a good thing.

> I think more clearly with coffee

Was that your baseline level without coffee? That's hard to know.

I went fifteen months without consuming any caffeine or heavily acidic foods to get my GERD back in control. I don't think I've ever felt the same mental stimulation away from coffee. I understand that since I've been drinking coffee for such a long time it could have long-term effects, but I can't find anything that supports caffeine having long-term effects on the brain other than some mood and sleep patterns.

So, I'd be inclined to believe my baseline levels are generally around where I am now (a cup of coffee every few days). Taking from that, I do have a lot of faith that coffee is still a great mental stimulant for me, and it's not just bringing me back to my old normal.

Of course, I know I can't provide anymore evidence of this other than personal experience. I don't happen to have an MRI machine in my closet.

This is common with many types of drugs, especially stimulants. Your body's systems are homeostatic, they have a self regulating balance. When you introduce a drug that disrupts this your body attempts to compensate.

This is why users of stimulants, like caffeine, have to increase dosages over time to maintain the same effects. It's also part of why you have withdrawal.

I'm pretty sure that's the case, at least for myself. If I drink coffee every day, then I have normal levels of mental function when I am on caffeine and lower than normal at other times. I like coffee though and decaf just doesn't have the flavor, so I alternate weeks with and without coffee. Seems to work for me.

I personally know, thats exactly the case. Also lack of sleep will make you go way below where your normal baseline would be.

For me it's a sleep thing. If I enough/plenty of sleep then caffeine doesn't do much, otherwise it can help a lot.

Definitely. If I drink more than a cup of coffee (admittedly, coffee here is strong stuff) per day, I would get anxious, derpy, and a little physically dependent. I restrict my caffeine to one cup of coffee per day and one or two cups of tea in the afternoon for just that reason.

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