Every day of high school I used to wake up at 6am to get ready in time to catch the bus. Lately, as I literally drag myself out of bed at 7:20 to come in for work, I’ve found that fact pretty hard to believe.

You’d think the easy answer to my grogginess would be caffeine. A quick stop at Starbucks and I’d be fine, right? Not quite.

I’ve started to notice lately that it doesn’t matter if I drink coffee before heading out; I’m still really tired during my commute. I know the caffeine is working (because my heart definitely starts to beat faster), but I’m just a sleepy person whose heart happens to be beating faster. Weird.

I guess caffeine just has different effects on different people, but part of me wonders if it all isn’t just in our heads. One of my best friends can’t drink tea, coffee or even soda any time after 9pm if she wants to be able to get to sleep anytime before 1am. And my mom swears that drinking a bottle of Vitamin Water makes her feel just as rejuvenated as a cup of coffee.
Is it possible that coffee doesn’t wake me up just because I don’t think it will?

How does caffeine affect you? Do any of you CG!s have the same resistance to coffee as me? Or does your morning Starbucks keep you going all day?

And if you have any tips for waking yourself up in the morning that don’t involve coffee please let me know so that the train conductor doesn’t have to keep waking me up every morning to take my ticket!

Catherine Mevs
CG! Editorial Intern