the most simple and straightforward method I’ve
provided thus far. For many people, this tip has
the potential to have a bigger impact than any
other single action. The catch? You have to cut
down on caffeine, and as any caffeine drinker can
attest, this is easier said than done.
For those who aren't aware, the ability to manage
your emotions and remain calm under pressure
has a direct link to your performance.
#The Good: Isn’t Really Good
Most people start drinking caffeine because it
makes them feel more alert and improves their
mood. Many studies suggest that caffeine actually
improves cognitive task performance (memory,
attention span, etc.) in the short-term.
Unfortunately, these studies fail to consider the
participants’ caffeine habits. New research from
Johns Hopkins Medical School shows that
performance increases due to caffeine intake are
the result of caffeine drinkers experiencing a
short-term reversal of caffeine withdrawal. By
controlling for caffeine use in study participants,
John Hopkins researchers found that caffeine-
related performance improvement is nonexistent
without caffeine withdrawal. In essence, coming
off caffeine reduces your cognitive performance
and has a negative impact on your mood. The
only way to get back to normal is to drink
caffeine, and when you do drink it, you feel like
it’s taking you to new heights. In reality, the
caffeine is just taking your performance back to
normal for a short period.
#The Bad: Adrenaline
Drinking caffeine triggers the release of
adrenaline. Adrenaline is the source of the “fight
or flight” response, a survival mechanism that
forces you to stand up and fight or run for the
hills when faced with a threat. The fight-or-flight
mechanism sidesteps rational thinking in favor of
a faster response. This is great when a bear is
chasing you, but not so great when you’re
responding to a curt email. When caffeine puts
your brain and body into this hyper-aroused
state, your emotions overrun your behavior.
Irritability and anxiety are the most commonly
seen emotional effects of caffeine, but caffeine
enables all of your emotions to take charge.
The negative effects of a caffeine-generated
adrenaline surge are not just behavioral.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found
that large doses of caffeine raise blood pressure,
stimulate the heart, and produce rapid shallow
breathing, which readers of Emotional
Intelligence 2.0 know deprives the brain of the
oxygen needed to keep your thinking calm and
rational.
#The Ugly: Sleep
When you sleep, your brain literally recharges,
shuffling through the day’s memories and storing
or discarding them (which causes dreams), so that
you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your self-
control, focus, memory, and information
processing speed are all reduced when you don’t
get enough—or the right kind—of sleep. Your
brain is very fickle when it comes to sleep. For you
to wake up feeling rested, your brain needs to
move through an elaborate series of cycles. You
can help this process along and improve the
quality of your sleep by reducing your caffeine
intake.
Here’s why you’ll want to: caffeine has a six-hour
half-life, which means it takes a full twenty-four
hours to work its way out of your system. Have a
cup of joe at eight a.m., and you’ll still have 25%
of the caffeine in your body at eight p.m. Anything
you drink after noon will still be at 50% strength
at bedtime. Any caffeine in your bloodstream—
with the negative effects increasing with the dose
—makes it harder to fall asleep.
When you do finally fall asleep, the worst is yet to
come. Caffeine disrupts the quality of your sleep
by reducing rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the
deep sleep when your body recuperates and
processes emotions. When caffeine disrupts your
sleep, you wake up the next day with an
emotional handicap. You’re naturally going to be
inclined to grab a cup of coffee or an energy drink
to try to make yourself feel better. The caffeine
produces surges of adrenaline, which further your
emotional handicap. Caffeine and lack of sleep
leave you feeling tired in the afternoon, so you
drink more caffeine, which leaves even more of it
in your bloodstream at bedtime. Caffeine very
quickly creates a vicious cycle.
Like any stimulant, caffeine is physiologically and
psychologically addictive. If you do choose to
lower your caffeine intake, you should do so
slowly under the guidance of a qualified medical
professional. The researchers at Johns Hopkins
found that caffeine withdrawal causes headache,
fatigue, sleepiness, and difficulty concentrating.
Some people report feeling flu-like symptoms,
depression, and anxiety after reducing intake by
as little as one cup a day. Slowly tapering your
caffeine dosage each day can greatly reduce these
withdrawal symptoms.
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