Monday, July 19, 2010

Sleep, caffeine and confessions

Confession time: I intended to use caffeine sparingly in pregnancy. I pretty much went without through the first trimester. I did pretty well most of the second trimester only having caffeine two or three times a week, if that. And low quantities when I did have it. But the last month or so had gotten pretty bad. I was still on low quantities, but I had gotten into having it basically every day.

So then I read this article: http://i.lifehacker.com/5585217/what-caffeine-actually-does-to-your-brain

The very next day I gave caffeine up again. So now I'm on day 5 of no caffeine (you know, besides the stuff in chocolate... I'm still eating it I suppose). But life is hectic and I'm pregnant and not sleeping enough. On Sunday, the only day I reasonably could have slept in in the last 5 days, I woke up at 6:30am. That's a major bummer. And then I had a long day yesterday and got to bed at 1am. I could have slept in today, but I had to get to work.

And then this morning I get this article: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/18/the-surprising-toll-of-sleep-deprivation.html

Neither of these specifically address pregnancy, but I'm really out of it today. I would love a nap, but about 95% of the time when I try to nap, I can't sleep. I'm just not a napper right now.

But according to the first article, all caffeine dependency is gone after 10 days of abstinence. I'm going to go at least that long and see how I feel. I'm hoping that I feel good and don't turn back to it, at least on any regular basis, for the rest of the pregnancy.

Sorry mom.

Days Pregnant: 194
Days to go: 86

2 comments:

  1. I read the same articles you did and had the opposite reaction. Certainly no caffeine is best, no doubt. But reading the first article, I thought, "So caffeine is just tricking my body into not knowing it's tired by binding to those receptors? That doesn't seem so bad." And then reading the 2nd, I thought, "Ok, so sleep dep is terrible but having caffeine means that I'd be bad at perceiving this. So if I'm going to be sleep deprived, I'd be happier being more oblivious to it." Bring on the iced tea.

    -A

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  2. I should add that I think it's great you're going caffeine free. Certainly best for you and your little guy! Keep up the good work.

    -A

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