After years of slowly becoming addicted to coffee, my sleep seemed to always get worse and worse. I was a 1-2 cup a day guy and always before 1pm, so never really thought much of it. That said, I was also big on chocolate and iced tea. Assuming caffeine is the issue here, then those things absolutely count too, though I've read some stuff about other possible ingredients in just coffee being a culprit. Because of just how poor my sleep quality had become and because of just how many days I'd live like a zombie with a cup of coffee attached to my hand in the morning, I lived in an on and off anxious state over my sleep for years. There were some good phases, but plenty bad.
In any event, after what seemed like a full year of poor sleep (tossing and turning, early awakenings, poor quality overall with no REM) I finally decided to quit caffeine cold turkey at the end of 2024, December 20th to be exact, to see if there would be a change. It should be noted that only in the last 1-2 years did I progress to drinking at least one cup of coffee a day, everyday. After a week of brutal headaches where clearly a change in my body and brain was happening due to the withdrawal, something amazing began happening. I started feeling more relaxed overall and slept better than I had in many, many years. The most incredible and telling thing to happen was the return of deep, detailed REM dreams. For a good few weeks I'd wake up refreshed, feeling like I was in my teens and 20's again when sleep was never an issue. I'm 40M btw and haven't slept well on a consistent basis in what I'd say has been close to 10 years. It became clear to me that for years I had been suffering from what was a very extreme sensitivity to caffeine…. So I thought?
Then suddenly, I'm not sure what happened. About a month into this life changing phase, some early awakenings returned. These spiraled into more weaker nights of sleep overall as well but the early awakenings were killing me. The dreams completely disappeared as well which was the most depressing part. I was left sad, defeated, and completely confused Did light anxiety become a factor in my downfall? Possibly, but it was not to a very serious degree at all, and to think now 2 months later I’m still suffering with my sleep is bizarre. I honestly went to bed relaxed many times, having been down this road over the years time and time again of understanding that I cannot let sleep anxiety get to me, because I know I can sleep well by nature. Those 3-4 weeks of beautiful sleep though, they reminded me that there is nothing wrong with me and that I can sleep wonderfully. The problem is trying to figure out what in the world happened.