A cut-off time for caffeine

Caffeine is a friend in the morning and a quiet thief at night. It stays in the body for many hours, so the cup at four o'clock can still be keeping you alert at midnight, even if you fall asleep easily. A single cut-off time is simpler than counting cups.

The steps

Four small steps,in your own time.

For three days, notice every drink with caffeine in it: coffee, tea, cola, energy drinks, and some chocolate and medicines too.
Choose a cut-off time about eight hours before you usually go to bed. If bed is at eleven, that is around three in the afternoon.
After that time, switch to drinks without caffeine: water, herbal or decaffeinated tea, warm milk, decaffeinated coffee.
Keep it for two weeks before you judge it, and cut down gradually if you drink a lot, rather than stopping all at once.

The reason

Why it helps

Caffeine blocks the body's natural build-up of sleepiness through the day. When it is still active at bedtime, sleep can be lighter and more broken, even when it does not feel that way. Moving it earlier lets that sleepy pressure do its work in the evening, while you still keep the morning cup.

A gentle variation

If an afternoon drink is a small pleasure you do not want to lose, keep the ritual and change what is in the cup. The same mug, the same chair, the same ten minutes, with a decaffeinated version.

A cut-off time for caffeine

Four small steps,in your own time.

Why it helps

A gentle variation

Try itwith someone.

Try it today

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Rest

Awake at three

The same time up, every day