What Happens When You Give Up Caffeine

Caffeine gives you a jolt of energy, but sometimes that jolt can mirror the symptoms of anxiety: jittery nervousness, heart palpitations, even feelings of panic. That’s your “fight or flight” response taking over. The less you take in, the less you trigger that response and the anxiety that comes with it.

Caffeine is a common choice for burning the midnight oil because it boosts alertness. So it makes sense that cutting it out makes for better ZZZs. In fact, if you throw back a caffeine drink even as many as 6 hours before bedtime, it can still bother your sleep.

Caffeine can act like a laxative. This makes you need to go more — and more often than not, what comes out is loose stools. If you scale back on coffee especially, it can cut down on trips to the loo and take your output back to normal.