darn you, caffeine!

Unless I have to stay up late, I avoid consuming anything with caffeine during the later part of the day as much as possible. This includes drinks, candy or food that are made up of colas (Pepsi, Coke), coffee, and tea. Thing is, if I have something with caffeine in it in the afternoon or evening, I guarantee you that I’ll be awake until the wee hours of the next morning. That’s how sensitive my body is to caffeine. I don’t mind, though. Except for iced tea, I never cared for the others anyway. And during the rare times that I crave for Pepsi or Coke, I make sure that the following day is a weekend or holiday so that I wouldn’t have to wake up early.

Now why am I blabbering on about this? Because I took something with caffeine two times yesterday, resulting to only 1 hour’s sleep! I mentioned in a post yesterday that I wasn’t feeling well, right? Actually, it was like the beginnings of the flu. On Monday I took Advil Liqui-Gels; but since I didn’t feel any improvement, I tried another medicine from our office First Aid Kit. Of course I read the box carefully, and although it mentioned it had caffeine, I figured that it wasn’t much...just enough to keep the person from feeling drowsy. I took one tablet around 9:30am, and because I could feel it working, I took another one after dinner. By 10pm, I was in bed ready to go to sleep, but I just ended up tossing and turning. When I checked the time, it was already 11:30pm! Out of frustration, I went out to the living room to watch television. By 1am, I decided it was already late so I went back to bed. I was still awake at 3am when I finally realized that it was that darn medicine’s fault! So I went to the kitchen and drank a glass of milk, thinking that maybe it would help. It didn’t, because I still hadn’t drifted off to dreamland by 4:45am, which meant I only had 1½ hours left to sleep! Augh! Finally, my mind and body overtook the caffeine effect, allowing me to nod off 15 minutes later. Despite sleeping late, I managed to hear the alarm go off so that I could get ready for work on time.

In case you’re wondering, here’s what I took

And this is the back of the box where it mentions it has caffeine

So, you guessed it...I did not get enough sleep. Good luck to me because tonight I HAVE TO stay up late. My German family will be arriving, and since they most probably wouldn’t have eaten on the plane, we’ll be having a late dinner somewhere.

Now I guess I have no choice but to take something with caffeine. Ayayayayay!