Not sure when it happened, but at some point in the last 10-15 years, I became supremely sensitive to caffeine after 6pm. Long story short, I had a cup of joe before the SOTU, and now, several hours later, still can not fall asleep. I honestly don’t understand it, because I know so many folks who can drink coffee while in bed, roll over, and be snoring 20 seconds later.
I hate them.
Linkmeister
Maybe you should have a Rolling Rock instead in the future?
YellowJournalism
I can’t handle it late at night, either. I also get really jittery from allergy or cold pills with caffeine or caffeine-like ingredients. I also seem to get reverse effects from things that have sleep aids in them. If I take NyQuil, I’m up all night, and it’s a weird sort of awake where I’m restless and nervous as I try to force myself to sleep.
Roger Moore
This is part of getting older. It’s happened to just about everyone coffee drinker I know, and it’s the reason decaf was invented. As for the drinking coffee and falling asleep immediately, that’s a different thing. It takes a while to absorb the caffeine, while the warmth of the coffee starts working immediately. If you’re the kind of person who can fall asleep the moment you close your eyes, you can get there before the caffeine can get to your brain to keep you awake. If you’re the kind of person who usually takes a while to fall asleep, not so much.
Yutsano
Do not, under any circumstance, move to Seattle. We drink java at pretty much all hours.
Privatize the Profits! Socialize the Costs!
Yeah, I unfortunately made the exact same mistake tonight after a nice meal at a friend’s house.
So I feel your pain, sir.
jeff
I feel for you. i can’t drink coffee after about 4. And forget about taking vitamins like Emergen-C except in the am.
If you’re still up, i should introduce myself. I’ve been, i think it’s called, a lurker, for many years, back before you gave up on the Republican party. I don’t know how i found you, perhaps through Tom Tomorrow? I enjoyed your writing and sense of humour, but i’ve never commented before.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, Hi.
freelancer
Dude, I turn 30 this year. I can’t drink soda or coffee after 2pm without this happening. I have to ask, what were you thinking?!
“Hmmm, I know my body, and I’m aware that I’m prone to bouts of inexplicable, torturous insomnia, but let’s have some traditional morning ‘wake me up’ juice while we settle in for the evening.”
Next time, do an eight ball and just cross out your Wednesday on the calender because you’ll be frantically mashing the “Post” button in your dashboard every five minutes.
Satanicpanic
Even worse than coffee at night is whiskey/rum/any other alcohol + coke. The alcohol induced sleepiness wears off faster than the caffeine, so I wake up early in the morning still drunk and unable to sleep. I refuse to touch these awful cocktails anymore.
Evolving Deep Southerner (tense changed for accuracy)
When I was a newspaperman some 15 years ago, I worked a lot of nights-into-mornings and drank a lot of coffee. As in a pot after 10 a.m. on bad nights.
I can remember settling in at 3-4 a.m. sometimes, getting still, and when I was half asleep thinking “OK, I’m going to either piss in the bed or have a heart attack. Which will it be?”
Neither one ever happened, but there were plenty of nights when both felt imminent.
Triumph
Clearly, the solution is to post more Tunch pics.
Another Halocene Human
Did you see what Newt said about Obama, that he’s “not normal” because he isn’t a stone-cold serial adulterer, liar, opportunist, and greedball?
More of that “something’s hinky about Obama” theme that riled up the base during the birther summer, but with an added vomit-inducing twist.
Mr EX-Speaker, no, the fact that you served divorce papers to your wife as she was dying of cancer does NOT humanize you, as much as you would like to make it so.
Evolving Deep Southerner (tense changed for accuracy)
@Evolving Deep Southerner (tense changed for accuracy): That’s “a pot after 10 p.m. on bad nights.”
Mr. Cole, I know you addressed the slowness thing in an earlier post, but the edit feature? Anything on that?
Matt Mangels
Smoke some weed, man. You already copped (heh) to being stoned at that concert where Todd Rundgren called you an asshole.
dogwood
Take a couple of Excedrin PMs and you’ll be out in a half hour.
piratedan
@jeff: welcome Jeff, always nice to see another person delurk. The host is busy at the moment, but make yourself at home and stay away from the Newt, I think its gone bad, but what do you expect, its oh so 2002.
Louise
That happened to me when I hit 50. I, too, had late day caffeine today, and look when I’m posting this comment.
Another Halocene Human
Alcohol+caffeine=let me order another, I don’t feel drunk at all yet.
Another Halocene Human
@Roger Moore: You know, that explains a lot.
srv
John, it’s time to re-arrange your sock drawer.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
welcome to the Sanka years
is it cold in here?
burnspbesq
I haven’t had time to take a look at Romney’s 2010 return yet, but Dan Shaviro’s description of what he saw on a first look suggests that he (Romney) went way off the tax-planning deep end. It’s especially interesting that Romney had a capital loss carryover to 2010, which means he may not have paid any tax at all in 2009 on his Bain Capital carried interest.
http://danshaviro.blogspot.com/2012/01/romneys-2010-and-2011-tax-returns.html
Also, condolences to Dan (who wasn’t at NYU Law when I was there, but is by all accounts a really smart guy and a good teacher) on the loss of one of his kittehs.
piratedan
this seems appropriate somehow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uEPDEJbJu0
Roger Moore
@Another Halocene Human:
Of course it humanizes him. When he dehumanizes other people, there’s more humanity left for him!
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Put on another sweater! Do you think this blog is made of money?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@burnspbesq: what really boggles my mind is how they (according to David Cay Johnston on NPR today) used the carried interest thing to set up a $100 million trust fund for the boys without any gift tax. A $31 million dodge.
srv
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Steve Jobs apparently saved his heirs $3B in taxes with an irrevocable trust.
Comrade Mary
My younger sister hasn’t been able to drink regular tea after 4 PM for years now, but except for a brief period a couple of years ago, I can drink tea at any hour to rev me up or calm me down. I think it’s because I’m probably ADHD and have weird chemical metabolism. (Took speed once — my older sister’s diet pill — and fell asleep soon after. Took Valium for a university study, fell asleep, but won’t up terrified and choking.)
I’m only up now because I have a damn deadline.
Comrade Mary
won’t = woke
passerby
I’ve notice the same thing with caffeine sensitivity. In my younger days I could handle a pot of coffee a day. Now, I’m down to one in the morning up to 11 a.m.
After that, if I need more caff, I’ll drink a little can of Diet Coke. Sometimes I’ll push the little can to 1 p.m. but even that has had regrettable results lately.
And I’m not one to tolerate tossing and turning “trying” to fall asleep in bed. No no, I’ll sit here in front of this machine surfing around until I start to yawn and nod.
This week I’ve been using hot Chamomile and Mint tea. I think it’s working.
Night.
Another Halocene Human
@Roger Moore:
Okay, I LOL’ed.
passerby
Oh, and wasn’t that SOTU the weakest y’ll ever seen? I don’t just mean the content–that was the usual boiler plate stuff–but the whole atmosphere.
It was like everyone was just going thru the motions. Really rang hollow.
Another Halocene Human
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fuck. Me.
That’s always what it’s been about, though. Trust fund babies don’t pay. It’s those ranty wannabe high rollers who actually have to pay (assuming they haven’t figured out how to cheat–and there was a lot of that going on just a few years back) and keep voting in the 0.1%ers Most Favored Senators to keep themselves paying!
But some four year old Black child might lose her Head Start, so there’s that. It’s the little things in life, amirite?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@freelancer:
shut up, young un, get off my lawn.
Another Halocene Human
Chamomile. Good thought. *puts the kettle on*
Another Halocene Human
@passerby: Isn’t the SOTU hollow every year? At best it reminds me of those party leader speeches in totalitarian countries where the legislature stands up and applauds like crazy at the end of each line for fear of the gulag.
I guess with the current GOP primary melee it’s going to get mostly ignored, so maybe there is more meh going around than usual?
hamletta
I drank gallons of coffee for years, but when I got excused from my shitty job, I quit. Too much bother.
I made a mere 6-cup pot a couple of weeks ago, and I was grinding my teeth like I’d done an 8-ball.
Citizen_X
Never been able to drink coffee after 7 PM without sleeplessness.
Cole, you ought to like this: a co-worker ran out the other day to go to the corner store. He came back five minutes later with his purchases. “That was quick,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said, “I almost got into a fight, too.”
“Ha ha,” sez I. “Wait, you’re serious? How the fuck did you almost get into a fight in five minutes?”
Turns out some asshole didn’t like his Steelers hat. “What the fuck are you wearing that Steelers hat for?” he says, giving him a dirty look. “You’re in the wrong place to be wearing that, buddy.”
Where was, you ask? Cleveland? Baltimore? Try Fort Worth, Texas.
Who the hell starts fights over Steelers gear in Fort fucking Worth?
burnspbesq
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m not sure that’s a problem, amazingly enough. It depends on when it was done.
If it was done right after Bain Capital was formed, then you can make a decent argument for a low valuation (highly uncertain future cash flows justify a very high discount rate for purposes of a DCF valuation, etc. etc. blah blah blah). And if that’s how it was done, the statute of limitation ran a long time ago.
But you’re right about the bigger issue: we need to see Romney’s gift tax returns, not just his income tax returns.
burnspbesq
Romney has also benefited from the sheer complexity of his tax planning. According to Shaviro, Romney’s 2010 return reveals that he owns interests in a bunch of PFICs (Passive Foreign Investment Companies). I’m here to tell you that the PFIC rules are in the top three in the Crazy-Complicated League. I do international tax for a living, and I’ve spent days with the PFIC rules and come away with nothing but an empty bottle of Advil. There are maybe ten people who really understand them, and not one of those ten works in field exam at the IRS.
passerby
@Another Halocene Human:
Yeah, you’re right about it being a snooze fest every year but, even the perfunctory applause was…tentative, like.
“Meh” sums it up beautifully. The GOP has very little hope of fielding a candidate who can unseat Obama so they’ve hopelessly resigned themselves to meh. Good point.
Yutsano
@burnspbesq:
I couldn’t even tell you what IRM govern those, let alone where in the IRC it is. But then again I don’t do tax law.
freelancer
@Citizen_X:
My guess is a native born Texan.
Brian S
@Citizen_X:
The President of the Jackie Smith fan club?
Citizen_X
@freelancer: Why would they give shit? Aggies/Longhorns gear, sure. A “COWBOYS SUCK” t-shirt, sure. But Steelers?
Allen
@Yutsano: I, for one, find modern coffees to be pretty terrible, the beans taste and smell like they have been burnt in roasting, yes Starbucks, this is you. I used to be a fan of Jamaican Blue Mountain and Guatemalan Antigua before I had to give up caffeine in all forms.
Schlemizel
@Allen:
The local coffee house used to have a sign “We chose dark and rich – burnt and bitter was already taken”. I hate Starbucks, they give coffee a bad name.
The stuff never seems to bother me but if the wifey says “coffee” out loud after about 8PM she is not going to sleep tonight.
Comrade Baron Elmo
Same problem as you, John, only it’s with my rocket fuel of choice, Mountain Dew — or as I like to call it, “redneck coffee.” (Before the advent of crystal meth, the Deep South ran on BC Powder and Dew.)
As a grizzled old radical of 52, it’s the one drug your humble scribe has never given up… but if I knock down one after, say, 3 in the afternoon, I won’t be getting jack shit for sleep that night. Back in those lazy-hazy-crazy days of high school, I’d down a big glassful of the day-glo nectar before going to bed and snooze blissfully.
Of course, in those days one could also disco-dance like a spastic chicken (read: white person) for hours, eat five-alarm chili with nary a trace of heartburn and play pinball for an entire afternoon without ending up with sore wrists, elbows and shoulders.
They say aging comes with certain advantages. I’m still trying to figure out what they are. Actually, lifestyle shaman Quentin Crisp mentioned one: “As it’s very near the end of the run, you can overact appallingly.”
Lojasmo
I will often take a daytime nap RIGHT after a cup of coffee, but of I drink a cup after 6 PM, and my nighttime sleep is not happening.
SFAW
As a far better man than I said about 80 years ago – I welcome your hatred.
Mrs. SFAW, on the other hand, cannot touch the stuff after Noon, or she’s up all night. (Which might be turned to my advantage, of course. Now, if I can just get her to stop going over to her boyfriend’s place on those nights …)
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
I had a roommate who drank coffee before bed because the caffeine gave him vivid dreams. I, on the other hand, am even worse off than you. Anything after noon keeps me awake way after midnight.
tarheel belle
so lucky you. it’s cheap and legal and real drugs get expensive and hard to find when you get older.
I’m jealous.
tarheel belle
so lucky you. it’s cheap and legal and real drugs get expensive and hard to find when you get older.
I’m jealous.
Roger the Cabin Boy
I’m 60 and I had to give up the after-dinner cuppa about 8 years ago, I was having trouble falling asleep and I’d wake up around 4 am. When I was younger, I could fall asleep in the middle of drinking a cup.
Howlin Wolfe
John, I feel your hate — but at least you don’t hate me ‘cuz I’m beautiful. (I’m not.)
Howlin Wolfe
@freelancer: As John said in his post, it didn’t bother him before this night. That’s what he was thinking.
KXB
Hmm… during the winter months, I will often have a cup of tea an hour before going to bed. Not de-caf tea, mind you. Just regular Lipton. It’s my way of unwinding. I don’t really drink coffee in the evening, unless I am out with friends having dinner, and even then, it does not keep me up. With all the other problems I’ve got, the inability to fall asleep is thankfully not one of them.
Mnemosyne
@Comrade Mary:
I finally got diagnosed with ADHD at 42 and was like, “Oh, that’s probably why caffeine doesn’t do much for me.” If I get a migraine, I can take Excedrin with a can of Coke and sleep like a baby.
But God forbid I should get a stuffy nose and need to take a Zyrtec or Allegra before bed — that shit keeps me up all night.
jheartney
Never drink coffee, but I do like caffeinated tea. If I have it at bedtime, it send
s me right to sleep. OTOH I rarely sleep more than 5 hours.
nastybrutishntall
ah feel yr pain. can drink a gallon before noon, exactly zero after that or my brain does some Gremlin shit at bedtime.
Gust Avrakotos
It’s called decaf. Look into it.
dance around in your bones
What’s the matter with you people?! Coffee is for the morning! Full stop.
LongHairedWeirdo
Sometimes, it’s not the coffee per se, but the emotional state you’re in. If you are a bit antsy, have a bit of free-floating anxiety, or angry, or upset, or whatever, the coffee exacerbates it. Not a lot – but enough that it doesn’t let you turn your brain off, and that’s what keeps you awake. If you’d been relaxed, you’d have dropped of, but you weren’t.
Does that mean you should drink coffee late in the day? No. But, if you realize, “oh, shit, just drank coffee, and it’s late!” then if you say “okay, but that weird guy on my blog said if I relax, I have a decent shot of being able to sleep” then you have a better shot at sleeping than if you’re worried about the coffee keeping you up.
just me
I mostly am trying to quit consuming caffeine after the midafternoon – after years of drinking it until right before going to bed. It’s really hard to remember to grab just water – and there are times I need to concentrate/stay awake. So, I cope with being up too late. A glass of wine will make me sleepy sometimes, but then I’ll wake up later. Dang. Being old is annoying.