Why I Still Felt Wired After Quitting Caffeine

By Stephen, from Formulised.

I’d cut the caffeine. Clean. Cold turkey.

No more morning cappuccinos , no more afternoon pick-me-ups. I anticipated the crash. I worried about the prospect of the fatigue. But what I didn’t expect was the wired feeling that lingered. A jitter beneath the surface. My mind spun while my body remained tired; something wasn't adding up.

For years, caffeine had been my crutch: productivity’s golden ticket. But after months of adrenal fatigue signs, disrupted sleep, and that underlying edge of irritability, I knew it had to go. Quitting wasn’t easy, but I stayed the course. What surprised me was how little it changed, at first.

The Myth of Instant Reset

Caffeine is a nervous system stimulant. It blocks adenosine, the neurotransmitter that signals rest. Remove it, and rest should return. But biology typically isn’t that linear or predictable. The body doesn’t simply go back to baseline after one change; it has adapted to the inputs. Caffeine was only a thread in a tangled web.

The Nervous System Doesn’t Forget Overnight

The wired feeling is nervous system dysregulation, not just caffeine withdrawal. Removing caffeine stops the stimulation, but it doesn’t instantly restore a balance of equilibrium. My system had been in overdrive for years. Hypervigilance, shallow breathing, sympathetic dominance, sleep disruptions.  These don’t switch off with one behavioural tweak.

This is Phase 1 territory — the Calm & Clear reset. I needed to stabilise the system, not just remove the stimulant. What I learned was overstimulation had layered roots.

Chronic Inputs: It Wasn’t Just Caffeine

When I mapped it out, I realised the overstimulation came from multiple sources:

❌Blue light late into the night

❌Doom scrolling and hyper-connectivity

❌High-volume sound exposure

❌Blood sugar swings from unbalanced meals

❌Supplements and stacks that, while clean, still drove pathways too hard, and were subsequently sub-optimal. 

Even my productivity tools had a cost. I had engineered my output, not my recovery. And so even without caffeine, my system still interpreted life as urgent.

The Role of Cortisol: Wired-but-Tired

Cortisol patterns take time to recalibrate. If the body has been running on cortisol and adrenaline for years, the body doesn’t shut the factory down immediately. It often compensates by producing erratic surges, especially in the evening (Marik, 2021). That’s why I still felt wired late at night — my body wasn’t sure when it was safe to relax.

Gut-Brain Signals Still On Alert

The gut had its say too. With caffeine gone, I expected digestive calm. But I still had bloating, erratic hunger, and mood volatility. The gut-brain axis was still firing stress signals. Gut inflammation has the potential to mimic anxiety.

This, in retrospect, turned out to be something a lot more sinister working away.

Phase 2 in the Formulised system addresses this: restore the microbiome, reduce permeability, and calm the enteric nervous system. It wasn’t just about what I removed — it was what I rebuilt that mattered.

Nervous System Recalibration: What Worked

Here’s what began to change things:

1. Breathwork Before Anything

Before stimulants, before breakfast, I did 5–10 minutes of coherent breathing — inhale 4 seconds, exhale 6. Parasympathetic activation on demand.

2. Light, Not Stimulation

I swapped phone scrolling for natural light exposure within 30 minutes of waking — a core circadian reset input (Huberman, 2022).

For practical tips, check out the Huberman Lab Podcast here.

3. Phase-Specific Nutrition and Supplementation

High protein-based evening meals, potassium-rich foods, sporadic use of L-Theanine, and Taurine, in conjunction with various forms of magnesium (chloride and glycinate being my favourite) created a calming base. Fewer blood sugar dips, fewer cortisol surges.

4. Stop Overcorrecting

The temptation to “bio hack” the wired feeling was strong. But adding more interventions without listening made it worse. I had to move slowly. Reduce, not stack.

A System, Not a Stimulant

Ultimately, the journey post-caffeine revealed this: the body was never designed to be driven endlessly. Without a system to support regulation, even the removal of the stimulant wasn’t enough. Healing required inputs that soothed, not shocked. 

Conclusion: The Hidden Phase Post-Caffeine

Caffeine withdrawal is only the start. The real work is regulating the system that became dependent on the pace it enabled. The 6-step Formulised framework isn’t about adding protocols for optimisation — it’s about listening to the physiology that’s been shouting under the surface.

I learned to rebuild from the ground up. The body doesn’t just need less stimulation. It needs more safety, more signals of calm, more inputs reminding it: “We’re not in danger anymore.”

 

Written by Stephen, from Formulised.