Thursday, March 13, 2008

Done Teetotaling

I'd been having insomnia problems. Really really bad insomnia problems. I decided this might be being caused by my drinking problem. So, I've made the decision to quit teetotaling. I've been off the stuff for 2 days now and the insomnia problem seems to be much much better.

Long ago I stopped drinking any coffee in the afternoon. For years I had to have a cup around 4pm. But then something happened to my metabolism, or maybe I just was nervously suffering from more stress. The problem did seem to arise after I moved to Texas. If I didn't have the afternoon coffee I'd develop a coffee withdrawal headache. But then one day I did not have my afternoon coffee and I had no headache and I've been coffee free, except for in the morning, ever since.

Back to the ceasing of the teetotaling. For a long time the health benefits of green tea have been touted. How it boosts the immune system, amps up the metabolism, all sorts of supposed benefits.

So, I started drinking green tea in the afternoon. Three bags worth of the stuff. It took me awhile to connect the cause to effect, but after I started drinking the salubrious green tea I started having worse insomnia issues. I knew green tea had some caffeine in it, but I didn't think it was a significant amount. Not nearly as much as coffee. Or so I thought.

And now I've stopped drinking green tea. Cold turkey. No withdrawal symptoms at all. And I slept really good last night. Except for some very disturbing dreams.

On a related side note, Wikipedia has an interesting list of people, unlike me, who are still teetotalers. George W. Bush is on that list. So is Adolph Hitler. Interesting coincidence that both share in common the teetotaling thing and a bad habit of invading other nations for no good reason.

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