Why it might be time to give up caffeine: From eye-twitches to insomnia & anxiety, what it REALLY does to you – and the truth about decaf

WITH OR WITHOUT? –

June 8, 2024 – Two coffee drinkers in five want to reduce their caffeine intake. ‘Decaf sales are growing fast. So, should you switch?” Let’s sort fact from fiction.

That depends. ‘People often say, “I’m trying to be good and cut back on coffee”, but drinking coffee is not problematic for those who tolerate the caffeine,’ says Dr Federica Amati, head nutritionist at health-science company Zoe and author of Every Body Should Know This (Michael Joseph, £22). ‘We’re all different in how we metabolise it, and some people are genetically more susceptible to negative effects. You have to respond to your body.’

Many people drink three to five coffees a day without any problem, while others experience anxiety, insomnia, an increased heart rate and even eye-twitching. A few get these symptoms after just one cup. This may evolve over a lifetime.

Perimenopause causes some women to suffer anxiety and sleep disturbance even without caffeine. ‘At that time, you might find that the cup of coffee you previously enjoyed in the morning now makes you feel more anxious,’ says Amati.

Psychiatrist Dr Alex Curmi was concerned about his caffeine habit of two to six shots of espresso a day: ‘As the second cup of the day faded out, I would get a visceral feeling of anxiety.’ He decided to give up for six weeks and documented the experiment on an episode of The Thinking Mind Podcast.