Supercharge Your Morning: How to Wake Up Refreshed When Coffee Stopped Working after a 30-Day Experiment

I tested the effects of intermittent fasting, caffeine withdrawal symptoms, sleep cycle, workout time, and more

Has drinking coffee been the first thing you do in the morning? It is for me.

But one day, coffee stopped working. I no longer feel energized after drinking coffee. I don’t even feel awake.

The problem emerged around March 1, 2021, and persisted for days, so I started a 30-day experiment to find a solution. I repeated the following steps 8 times:

Step 1: Hypothesize

Step 2: Experiment

Step 3: Record & Reflect

I finally figured out a solution on April 2, and it has been working consistently for the past 6 days. So I’m confident to share with you now.

Hypothesis 1: I need to eat less for dinner because digesting food takes energy and that can disrupt my sleep

What are the two things doctors always tell you to “fix” health? Diet and Exercise. That’s where I started to hypothesize too.

March 5, 2021

Experiment: I used to eat big meals for dinner, such as a steak + 2 stir-fried dishes. I changed my dinner to something light: salad.

Result: it didn’t work. I still felt sleepy the next morning and coffee didn’t wake me up.

I also experimented with eating dinner earlier at 5 pm, with both light and the usual big meals. Neither made a difference for the next morning.

Hypothesis 2: Intermittent fasting is taking away my energy

I started intermittent fasting about 2 months ago. It naturally made me wonder if fasting was the culprit. Maybe I am not awake in the morning because now I have no food to “boost” my energy?

March 12, 2021

Experiment: I substituted black coffee with *very* milky coffee to give my body the initial fuel at 7.30 am. I then experimented with both eating nuts and sweets at 9 am. Didn’t think eating sweets would be a good idea but I wanted to know for sure that low sugar level wasn’t the cause.

Result: it didn’t work. After drinking coffee, eating sweets or nuts, I still felt sleepy.

Hypothesis 3: I needed to exercise earlier to wake my body up

March 19, 2021

I have been work out regularly. Not a huge amount — 20 mins at 4.30 pm. 4–5 times per week.

But maybe my recent fanatic schedule or intermittent fasting disrupted some chemicals in my body. Maybe changing the exercise time can help.

Experiment: I brought forward my exercise time. First to 2.30 pm, then to 12 pm and finally, 9 am.

Result: It didn’t work. Working out on an empty stomach also made me a little dizzy after.

Hypothesis 4: I need to stop coffee during weekends for it to work again on weekdays

March 24, 2021

At this point, I was discouraged and worried. I do not want to feel this sleepy and brain foggy every morning for the rest of my life.

I Googled “why coffee stopped working”, “why coffee makes me sleepy”, etc. Possible reasons were “it’s the sweetener”, “it’s the mold”, “coffee withdrawal symptoms”. The first two are out of the question, but coffee withdrawal symptoms?

Experiment: I stopped coffee on Saturday and Sunday.

Result: I felt OK on Monday morning. Not super sleepy but not feeling great either.

The “coffee fast” may have some effect on how strongly my brain reacts to caffeine, but it’s not the main reason for my sleepiness in the morning.

Hypothesis 5: I need to drink more coffee

March 29, 2021

The “coffee fast” experiment also made me think that my body may have developed a certain level of tolerance towards caffeine.

It’d be sad if this is the reason, I thought. But at least I will have a solution: More coffee in the short-term + coffee fast in the long-term may bring me back to an awake state in the morning while I slowly lower my tolerance through weekend coffee fasts.

Result: I did feel more awake and energized after drinking the 2nd cup of coffee, but interestingly, only for 1 hour. After that, I went back to a groggy state. I repeated this experiment again the next day. I got a similar result.

The “more coffee” experiment basically produced the same result as “coffee fast” — those actions have some effect on my brain but not by a significant amount.

Hypothesis 6: I need to improve my sleep quality, even if I’ve followed most of the “good practice” of sleeping correctly

March 31, 2021

What the heck is the reason that coffee suddenly stopped working?? After so many experiments, I still have no idea.

Usually, when this happens, something is off about my fundamental assumption.

What if… How to make caffeine work better isn’t the key here.

I recalled my past experience: coffee would make me feel really good the next morning if I’ve had a wonderful night of sleep. What if the key is improving sleep quality?

I already fall asleep quickly. I do not wake up in the middle of a night. I sleep 8 hours. I use SleepCycle to wake up at the end of a sleep cycle. But, what if my sleep quality isn’t as good as I think?

I started googling again. This time, not about why caffeine stopped working, but about improving sleep quality. And I’m done with blog knowledge — I dived into medical papers.

Here are the interesting findings I wasn’t expecting:

1. In a study, people who ate two kiwis one hour before bedtime found that they fell asleep faster, slept more, and had better sleep quality. Tart cherries help with sleep too.
2. Fish oil, Zinc, Magnesium, and Vitamin D are showed to improve sleep quality.

That was my Aha moment! Indeed, I stopped eating kiwis about a month ago because the New Zealand kiwis weren’t available in the supermarket. Also, I didn’t take my fish oil or Zinc pills during the same period.

I’ve heard about the benefits of Magnesium and drinking milk (which includes Vitamin D) before sleep but I never personally experienced those effects, until now. My sleep quality must have suffered, and that’s why I don’t wake up feeling refreshed.

Experiment: Take the fish oil and Zinc pills during dinner.

I don’t have Magnesium in my house and kiwis are still unavailable. I will probably do further experiments in the coming month.

Result: I felt much better waking up the next morning. No sleepiness or brain fog. After drinking coffee, my head felt clear! The good old feeling.

The combination of “fish oil + zinc” has been working consistently for the past 6 days.

Important takeaways from the coffee experiments

1. Although my experiments about meal size and dinner time showed that those factors weren’t important, the assumption is that you’re eating reasonably healthy meals. If you eat tons of junk food or right before dinner, they will certainly have a negative effect on your sleep quality.
2. If coffee has suddenly stopped working for you, you may want to try the above combination of “fish oil + zinc + vitamin D” and probably + magnesium + kiwis. Coffee is only “the cherry on top”, and sleep quality is the real cake. Coffee makes you feel better if you’ve slept well, but can otherwise be useless.