Sleepy after coffee?

Nope, once I've had my caffetiere and a half of strong black coffee forst thing in the morning I daren't have anything else with caffiene in or my eyelids will feel like they've been pinned to my eyebrows.

Yikes, kind of scary to read that. My sister used to drink it ridiculous amounts... no surprise she ended up diagnosed as type2 diabetic when she was 31.

Iain said:

It is ridiculously unhealthy I'm afraid

Sadly so...I don't drink it as much anymore,  settled for spring water and tea, though when I'm busy I do drink cola to keep me awake so I can stick to writing schedules.

Holly Jane said:

Coca cola keeps me awake when I drink it

You will find this is because of the sugar - see https://www.chefsresource.com/faq/how-much-sugar-coca-cola/

On average, a regular can of Coca Cola (12 oz/355 ml) contains approximately **39 grams of sugar**.

The American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugar consumption to 25 grams per day for women and 38 grams per day for men. A can of Coca Cola exceeds these limits.

It is ridiculously unhealthy I'm afraid.

I can totally relate to your experience with coffee! I, too, find that coffee doesn't always have that expected effect on me. I can drink it at night and still fall asleep with no issues. Coca cola keeps me awake when I drink it so I tend to drink it a lot.  t's interesting how our bodies can react differently to substances like coffee. I also enjoy the bitter taste of coffee, especially when it's paired with milk. It's funny how something that is supposed to keep us awake can sometimes have the opposite effect.

It's a common theme from what I've seen that we use alcohol as a coping mechanism. I find it gives the confidence boost to socialise and numbs the noise a bit inside my head so I find situations less stressful.

I think it'd be good to have a break, I'm the same , I can't just have one, once I've had a couple it most often turns into "as many as I can cram in". Pretty much everything else you said has been the same for me too. I could probably easily pack in drink if it wasn't for the fear of socialising becoming harder again without it.

Good luck, I hope it goes ok. 

Caffine does not ever relax it only ever increases anxiety and stress levels , it holds no theraputic value in these respects it's similar to nicotine just a stress anxiety inducing phulysical stimulant any feeling of relaxation is due to a caffine or nicotine addiction and you satisfying your addiction and elevating  withdrawal symptoms this can mask but never change or remove the physical and mental stress and anxiety that tge substances induce . 

As a middle-aged person with a lifelong coffee addiction, this discussion has given me food for thought. I have found it interesting to read the various responses. In particular, the ones that mention ADHD.

I'm not so sure that coffee causes me to feel drowsy as such, but I am aware that if I drink coffee when I'm already feeling drowsy, it seldom seems to affect my ability to drop off to sleep. Whether it affects my quality of sleep is another matter.

It doesn't happen with every cup of coffee I drink, but sometimes I will drink one that really seems to hit the spot and relax me. It will have been made the same way, with the same brand of coffee, same size and shape of mug, and same quantity of coffee, boiled water and milk, but somehow the taste of it just seems considerably more satisfying. This is irrespective of whether I have made it myself, or it's been made by someone else.

Hi, I do feel better, because of a different condition linked to alcohol I had to take a course of medication for 6 weeks, I couldn’t drink alcohol with the medication. It just gave me that break I needed. 

I kept promising myself every week that I would stop drinking, I can’t only have one drink, anxiety has gone down massively, I don’t get depressed so much either. It’s obviously early days, I don’t think about alcohol so much, my mind still races all the time but the coffee helps. The hardest part is with people trying to encourage me to drink, I can tell it’s treated as “is this part of you thinking you’re autistic thing?” I started using alcohol at school to help me cope with autism, social occasions have always been the hardest part of life, the alcohol shut the autism down enough so I seemed normal to others, or so I thought.

Do you feel better or being off the alcohol?

I'm so close to binning booze, after a week I always feel better in myself, more stable and positive, less paranoid and I stop  catastrophising .

Then for whatever reason I end up having a drink, social event or situation where I think I have to, usually more than maybe I should too and I'm back at the start of the cycle again.

I stopped drinking alcohol in March, since then I have been drinking a lot of coffee. I find it calms my mind, I often drink coffee before bedtime, I seem to actually sleep better. 

I like similar quiet and small spaces, I tried earplugs but so far cant find any I get on with. The part of my ear they fit into is too small for even the smallest fittings on earplugs and in ear headphones, so they just fall out...

I for sure have some ADHD traits it’s my hyperactivity sometimes, like shaking legs, but another time it’s hypoactivity - sitting frozen for extensive period of time and usually I get to “normal” mode when someone starts laughing at me sitting like a statue and staring at one point in space. Quite often it takes a while till I realize that someone is talking to me. It’s I guess dissociation during daydreaming. 
What gives me real relax is small closed space, feeling cozy, also silence and I noticed also earplugs help me a lot with it. I don’t wear them for long, but only with them I realised how it feels to be relaxed to feel comfortable. I still hear what’s important but don’t get constantly startled annoyed or triggered in other way by sounds around. Sunglasses are also my friends. 
When it comes to coffee I’m not sure if it helps me with concentration… I didn’t notice any difference here. It just makes me sleepy. 

I get those thoughts too.

normally, most of the time,  I find I hyper focus and forget things as a result, like meetings, or picking things up. The rumination I get is horrible too as it's always something negative I'll torture myself thinking about. I find I don't get that rumination as often if I make sure I'm well rested.

When I find I'm racing with thoughts it's usually when I'm emotionally tired, what i see as my autistic battery being flat, so my hyperfocus gets lost.

Coffee seems to move me away from the "ADHD" type symptoms towards the autistic ones, if that makes any sense?

I had been told during ASD diagnosis that I might have ADHD alongside my autism, but with the overlap and similarities, especially to some PDA traits it's hard to tell without getting the diagnosis for it.

Interesting, but I have no issues with focus, I often hyper focus to the point that I miss being called or fail to notice anything around. And I don’t have racing thoughts, what I have are repetitive thoughts. They often torture my brain also in the night if I wake up. Then I go to listen to music to turn off my brain. There is always something going on. I can endlessly repeat one conversation in my thoughts. I also often drink a coffee with milk when I’m hungry at work but it’s not a lunchtime yet. And it helps me kill the hunger. 

Paper said:

Finding stimulants relaxing is a sign of ADHD.

I have the same issue - only sugar as a stimulant works well.

It does get some odd looks sat at work munching a bar of chocolate in the 9am team meeting though,

Finding stimulants relaxing is a sign of ADHD.

Sounds like ADHD.

I find it relaxing too, usually helps me sleep as well.

Mainly as it it quiets my mind a little in terms of focus, if I'm struggling with concentrating because my minds trying it's best to get me to think of something else instead.

Half the time I struggle to sleep as my head's doing 200 mph thinking of all sorts. Coffee seems to help.

I think caffeine is supposed to help with ADHD and there are a lot of Autism ADHD crossover traits.