I have sad news to share. I’ve had to drop to just one coffee a day. Even now, during iced coffee season. I’m gutted. The thing is, I just can’t handle the coffee jitters. It’s a similar reason to why I’ve dropped how much alcohol I drink and have spent 2023 going damp – the after effects are too much for me. Hangovers, coffee jitters, all too much in my mid-30s. No thank you.
While ‘coffee jitters’ may sound a little bit made up, it’s a real sensation and I’m not alone in experiencing it.
According to coffee company Golden Ratio, coffee jitters are the physical sensations you get after too much caffeine. They can look like shakiness, nervous energy, and heart palpitations before the inevitable crash once those initial effects begin to wear off.
This is frustrating because I’m a sleepy gal and I enjoy the perky vibes that coffee gives me and while decaf can bring me the gorgeous aromas and taste, it’s missing the vital kick that I’m looking for.
Imagine my joy when I found out that not only can I enjoy more than one coffee a day, I can do so without those hellish anxiety-inducing symptoms.
How to avoid the coffee jitters
Eat breakfast
Well, in awful news for those of us that swap out breakfast for coffee – this is a really bad idea, it turns out. Yeah, I had an inkling too. According to Strava Craft Coffee, having breakfast before your first coffee means that ‘your body will absorb the nutrients from food as a first source of energy instead of relying on caffeine to wake up’.
Exercise
Whether you’re going for a walk, doing some cardio or even just a lunchtime yoga session, research shows that exercise reduces the anxiety brought on by caffeine so to avoid it starting at-all, add a little exercise to your daily routine to keep those jitters at bay.
Don’t drink your coffee too quickly
This is something I’m so guilty of but if you drink your coffee too quickly, you’ll raise your heart rate which can cause anxiety and those all-too-familiar jitters that we’re trying to avoid. So while you don’t need to nurse it for hours, just don’t do what I do and drink an iced coffee within five minutes of making it. Oops.