This article doesn't address the long term effects of Caffeine. Personally, I find that Caffeine makes it harder to slow down and relax. Caffeine makes it harder to sleep.
The last time I quit coffee for a long period time was around the end of college. It was really rough at first, but I started sleeping really well every night. I slept for 12 hours the first day, but I started to feel incredibly rested. I was able to just relax and read books. I felt more introspective and began to realize things inside of me that I had been distracted from. I felt more like me. I didn't have the highs that coffee brought, but I didn't have the lows brought by over-consumption, anxiety and sleep deprivation, headaches from withdrawal when I didn't have enough.
Of course, something got me back on it, I'm still drinking coffee, and it's even harder to quit now.
Got a source on the "stifling creativity" thing? I don't see anything about it in the abstract, and I don't particularly want to pay $36 to read the paper.
Interesting, thanks. That makes sense in retrospect and fits well with other research I'd heard of.
(tl;dr a wandering mind is good for creativity. Caffeine stimulates focus and inhibits mind wandering)
It's not quite a slam dunk though - the mind wandering is supposed to happen before the creative act. So I see no reason why going for a walk, then sitting down to write with a cup of coffee, should have any negative effects whatsoever.
I would like to believe this, but this feels like one of those conclusions that flip 180 degrees every few years, depending on who you ask. I have very little trust in nutritional science for these kinds of things.
Caffeine is an ubiquitous substance - so I wonder if these performance tests were done on people who had never used caffeine before, or at least use caffeine only rarely.
I'd assume the study would have told these people not to consume caffeine until they arrived at the study. If these people were regular caffeine users the positive effects could just be that the caffeine they were given alleviated the withdrawl symptoms of going without caffeine all day until the study.
The last time I quit coffee for a long period time was around the end of college. It was really rough at first, but I started sleeping really well every night. I slept for 12 hours the first day, but I started to feel incredibly rested. I was able to just relax and read books. I felt more introspective and began to realize things inside of me that I had been distracted from. I felt more like me. I didn't have the highs that coffee brought, but I didn't have the lows brought by over-consumption, anxiety and sleep deprivation, headaches from withdrawal when I didn't have enough.
Of course, something got me back on it, I'm still drinking coffee, and it's even harder to quit now.
Here's a list of the long term effects:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/97493-caffeine-longterm-ef...