I’m a self-assumed coffee lover.
I’ve been drinking coffee since my childhood. Drinking coffee for breakfast is traditional in northeastern Brazil. We’re used to having bread, tapioca (it’s a typical food from Brazil made with cassava flour,) and couscous with some optional ingredients like eggs, and cheese washed down with coffee. As I avoid carbs because of my predisposition to diabetes, I’ve created a healthy concoction: banana and avocado mashed; protein and multivitamin powder; and nuts (coconut sometimes). I eat this mixture while drinking bitter coffee.
To get to the point of drinking coffee without sugar was a gradual process: first, I exchanged sugar for sweetener (I wonder how I’d bear it 😖), then I was reducing the drops of sweetener from 5 to 2 gradually. When it came to two drops it was already bitter, so I thought to myself: “okay, now I’ll shut down the sweetness too.”
Drinking bitter coffee is quite a surprise for many people. People feel impressed by someone who drinks sugarless coffee. Believe it or not, sweet coffee is repugnant for me now.
I used to brag about myself because I would drink coffee at any time of the day and get good sleep at night. However, this week I recognized that I was wrong.
A couple of months ago, I was listening to a podcast (The Truth About Sleep – And How It Can Save Your Life with Dr. Matthew Walker) where the doctor said that people who drink coffee at any time, would be tricking themselves. Even though they would be able to fall asleep easily, their bodies don’t rest properly because of the caffeine in their bodies. According to the doctor, we shouldn’t drink coffee after 2 pm otherwise it might affect the quality of sleep.
This week, I could see for myself, by accident, that it’s true. For three days in a row, I drank coffee with milk at dinner time. I fell asleep quickly as always, the problem was when I woke up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night ( it happens religiously), when I got back in bed I couldn’t sleep well anymore. I dozed fitfully until dawn in my bed.
Then it dawned on me, it was the cup of coffee with milk that I was drinking in the evening. Indeed, yesterday, I didn’t drink coffee in the evening and I could sleep like an angel. 😴
The bottom line is: hereafter, I’m going to drink coffee until noon.
How about you? Do you drink coffee? Does it affects your sleep?
Please, let me know in the comments below.
Thank you for reading.
See you next time.