Mmm coffee. Piping hot, ice cold, and pumpkin spiced. Caffeine is a core part of our lives and culture. And, we’ve put caffeine on a pedestal. But should we?
“What makes creative people tingle are interesting problems, the chance to impress their friends, and caffeine,” Alex Steffen, a futurist, said.
And we all use or begin using caffeine for different reasons. For example, I began drinking coffee when I started working after school. Living with a friend, we were out too late on too many work nights. Then I’d have afternoon meetings, and my head bobbed as I tried to stay awake. Hey, maybe that coffee stuff would keep me awake. You know, instead of getting a decent night of sleep. I could solve my problem with caffeine.
Is that a healthy start to a relationship? And how did yours begin?
As time went on, I turned to caffeine as the answer anytime I needed to focus or get something done. I would see how much caffeine I could consume at all times of the day. And instead of getting things done, I mostly drank coffee.
I aimed to do more work; instead, I began to replace labor with caffeine. It made me feel like I would do more.
The stimulation I received from coffee created a desire for more stimulation. And more coffee was the answer. It spiraled into dependence.
But many people regulate themselves better than I do. So limiting to one or two cups of coffee or tea in the morning is less pernicious. Not everyone goes full boat into the deep end. It must be nice.
That said, even at lower quantities, I question whether coffee has the desired effect on my attention. Am I better at focusing and doing work when I’m caffeinated?
That’s a difficult question. And to be clear, most studies find that caffeine increases attentional performance.
Yet so often, I struggle to focus when caffeinated. For example, it’s a challenge to meditate after using caffeine. My mind flies around more than usual, and I’m ready to get off the cushion as soon as I begin instead of finding calm and peace. And more, I may feel more alert and focused when writing, but so often, that attention bounces around from one thing to the next. I feel more productive but struggle to focus on one thing. Instead, I hop from one thing to another and am less able to do deep work.
That’s being busy without being productive. Sheesh.
That’s my personal experience, not a scientific study. But I did go a year without substances, caffeine included. And I’ve gone on and off caffeine since then. Once I get through the first few days without caffeine, when I’m exhausted and unable to achieve much, my body feels healthier. And I get better alertness and focus from a morning run and enough sleep than I ever do from caffeine.
More, I find caffeine intake precedes other actions. For example, I mentioned I’m less likely to meditate and do deep focused work after taking caffeine, and also, I’m more likely to reach for other substances to keep the rush going.
However, let’s shift to caffeine‘s origins. It begins with plants. Cocoa, Kola, and Coffee plants all produce caffeine. And caffeine is toxic to plant cells, so they store them in specialized compartments away from the rest of the plant.
Caffeine is from the chemical family methylxanthine, a pesticide used by humans and plants. It’s toxic to birds, dogs, cats, insects, and other species. So it’s possible plants began producing caffeine to discourage predators from eating them.
And, at large doses, caffeine is lethal to humans. No, you’re not at risk from your cup of coffee or energy drinks. But powdered caffeine supplements estimated lethal dose is less than a tablespoon. That’s why water is poured over caffeine for coffee to produce milligram doses, tiny amounts. The US FDA requires beverages to contain less than 0.02% caffeine.
Experts recommend caffeine abstinence or low dosage for pregnant women or children. Caffeine is a stimulant and drug that affects children’s sleep and may impact brain development.
But it hasn’t discouraged everyone. Humans ingest non-lethal doses for alertness, awakeness, and the buzz it produces. It operates by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain, a chemical responsible for making us feel tired.
That has led to a different relationship with caffeine-producing plants; we cultivate them. So while plants may have initially developed caffeine as a defense mechanism, it has created a symbiotic relationship. Instead, caffeine-producing plants have become among the most successful because humans proliferated them. Pretty good for the plant, eh?
And caffeine is addictive. It enhances the reward memory of honey bees. So what better way to ensure humans and animals spread the plant than to hook them?
Caffeine’s chemical compound works so that withdrawal begins in the morning, right when we’d reach for another cup. It’s a perfect cycle.
Ok, but one of my favorite things about caffeine and what has benefited its cultural growth is the shared experience with others. Sitting at a coffee shop, sharing a cup with someone, or posting Starbucks’ attempt at your name creates togetherness. I love that.
Although, one of the best jokes I’ve heard was about coffee. I was at a small cafe sitting outside along the water of a Croatian island with a group of people. We’d gotten our coffee of choice when a Croatian skipper said, “Americans are so busy, they don’t have time to enjoy their coffee.” Haha. We tend to get it and run instead of taking the time to breathe and enjoy it.
And in part, that’s because caffeine speeds us up. It increases respiratory and heart rates. As a result, our breathing quickens, and our heart beats faster. That makes us feel alert but decreases our ability to rest and recover. Heart rate variability, the ability for your heart to slow, drives quality sleep and recovery. It’s at the heart of most meditations, slowing your breathing and heart rate via long deep breaths. But caffeine has the opposite effect; it supercharges our systems.
Stress also increases heart rate. You know, that thing we’re all trying to avoid. Does coffee act as a stressor? Am I quicker to frustration and anger when caffeinated?
And I’m not the only one to go without caffeine. In This is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan quit caffeine for 90 days to study how it affected him. After the withdrawal period, he generally found he could function normally.
After 90 days without, Michael resolved only to drink coffee on Saturdays. But even on his first Saturday, he was drawn to more than one cup. And in the final paragraph, he concludes by getting a coffee on an abstinent day.
Also, Pollan explores the relationship between coffee and culture. Before coffee’s introduction, most Europeans drank alcohol all day because water was contaminated and often unsafe to drink. And coffee offered a better solution to alcohol; folks weren’t drunk all the time. And soon, the coffeehouse became a cultural staple.
In the book, Pollan quotes Charles Czeisler, an expert on sleep and circadian rhythms at Harvard Medical School, in a National Geographic article by T.R. Reid:
“The principal reason that caffeine is used around the world is to promote wakefulness. But the principal reason that people need that crutch is inadequate sleep. Think about that: We use caffeine to make up for a sleep deficit that is largely the result of caffeine.”
The people most critical of caffeine, and one of the few groups of that position, are sleep scientists. Matthew Walker, who wrote Why We Sleep, also abstains from caffeine.
Scott Stossel, an editor of The Atlantic, said, “Many nights, I would begin the evening fueled by caffeine and nicotine, which I needed to propel me out of torpor and hopelessness – only to overshoot into quaking, quivering anxiety.”
But just about everyone else is for it. Around 90% of humans use caffeine regularly. It is the widest used psychoactive drug in the world and the only one routinely given to children (often via soda).
And my counselor reminds me that caffeine is very low on the harm scale, as they sip on an iced coffee.
Yet few people think of it as a drug.
But I’m spotlighting the role of caffeine in our lives so you may think about it for yourself. Because so often, we mindlessly consume without recognizing the reason why. There is no panacea, not even our beloved caffeine.
So some days I drink coffee, and others I avoid it. I’m figuring out what works for me. And you are responsible for deciding for yourself. Awareness and being mindful of why you’re using caffeine is the place to start.
I’m going to ponder it over this iced Americano.
