Two days without caffeinated tea and I fell asleep just by lying down and closing my eyes! I awoke both days at 6 naturally. I normally struggle to leave bed by 8:30 on work days, sometimes past noon on weekends. My adult life has been marked by insomnia leading to late late night "research" and bleary eyed mornings. Was this solely the hand of caffeine? I almost want to drink more tea to find out!
Unlike coffee drinkers who have a horrible physiological time of going cold turkey with brutal headaches, fatigue, irritability, and even depression, I'm finding the amount of caffeine I had with tea I can titrate off easily in a day. It's the psychological comfort of milky tea I miss most in the morning. I don't ease into my morning Hongchas without the preliminary India teas.
I'm grateful I've got my chicory tea made to tide me over. Made from roasted root of the chicory plant, it's a common coffee substitute with a mellow roasty malty flavor and a boatload of health benefits from digestive and liver support to boosting anti-oxidative activity. Too bad it's NSFPW - not safe for pregnant women. When my pregnant friend was visiting, I wanted to surprise her with a delicious coffee substitute but I didn't even let her see it as chicory is a uterus stimulator as is parsley.
Now my brain is spinning on what to do. For this month, it's chicory and substitutes.
I've never had trouble sleeping and don't have much of a dependency on caffeine, perhaps because of two rules: 1) Almost never use caffeine to wake up in the morning--make sleep a priority, 2) Exercise a lot--I pretty much only drink tea following a work-out. If I have a day where I don't get an intense burst of exercise, I don't drink tea--too much stimulation.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is also very caffeine sensitive. He's sleeping much better going without the stuff.
ReplyDeleteI grew up drinking chicory based hot drinks and I really do love them. They have their own special place in hot beverage genre.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried barley tea? A friend brought me some from Japan and it is quite good too (no caffeine and actually, no tea either).
LaDonna
Gracious Hospitality