I love the effects of caffeine, but I cannot tolerate the inverse effects which occur during withdrawal. I would rather experience consistent energy levels throughout the day, yet maintain a subtle boost. Better yet, daily repetition.
This desire lead me to quit caffeine until tolerance fell to baseline. I began brewing bulk quantities of green tea and consuming about 1 or 2 cups daily. I'm currently using the Lipton brand. It contains about 35mg of caffeine per serving (which I assume is full extraction of a single bag's contents, this needs verification). At this rate, I'm able to experience a perceptable tinge of caffeine and L-Theanine while receiving the non-psychoactive benefits of flavonoid's anti-oxidant benefits. There seems to be a rather slight inverse effect towards evening. I welcome it because it helps with sleep. I'm able to maintain focus for nightly reading/studying/etc up until bedtime. Might I also add, I've been consuming 30mg of noopept every morning for about 3 weeks (I can go into more depth about my noopept experiences in another thread).
The theory is that my dopamine, adenosine and GABA(from l-theanine) receptors will have time to reset during the evening and overnight. My understanding is that caffeine's half life is about 5.7 hours for the average human, according to one study (I can dig this up if needed). This implies that 35mg of caffeine consumed at 8AM will diminish to ~17.5mg by 1:42PM. Then, to less than 8.75mg by 7:34 (depending on if the rate of expulsion increases after the initial half-life duration). I'm not sure of the generalized mathematical formula for the rate of tolerance build up for a given quantity of caffeine even while it's still in the process of being removed from the system [(if such a forumla could even exist with current understanding), (also assume that the brain is originating at baseline tolerance)]. Maybe I am over-thinking this.
Regardless, it seems that there should be an optimal daily dose which can be repeated daily with consistent effects. Maybe it's way lower, such as >10mg.
Noopept is my favorite nootropic for the very reason that is has cumulative effects and very slow tolerance build up. Though I realize that a 1 month break after 2 months may be necessary according to the official noopept website (I haven't found the study that these time frames were based on). The effects are very profound. It will require a separate thread to explain this in deserved detail. In general, it has sort of a blanket effect on cognitive abilities, along with changes in thought patterns. Increased irritability from external ignorance does emerge from time to time. Other obvious effects: increased ability to focus, increased vocabulary fish-netting, improved dexterity and intent of motion, anxiety reduction, higher resolution mental visualizations, enhanced enjoyment of music.
Edited by Force, 17 January 2013 - 03:49 AM.
