How to optimize your caffeine intake: there's an app for that

Tim O'Reilly tweeted: "Quantified self for caffeine addicts -- IOS app to optimize intake. (Didn't know half-life in body was 5 hours!)"

Two doctors at Penn State University have developed Caffeine Zone, a free iOS app that tells you the perfect time to take a coffee break to maintain an optimal amount of caffeine in your blood — and, perhaps more importantly, it also tells you when to stop drinking tea and coffee, so that caffeine doesn’t interrupt your sleep.

How to optimize your caffeine intake

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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gracelovescostumesandhabaneros

I imagine there would also be interest in an app for maximization of alcohol-intake as well.
- retepslluerb
  
  Since Optimized means probably buzzed, I doubt that the users would be able to keep using the app.
http://twitter.com/ingsocbloc Luke Pebler

If drinking coffee too late in the day interrupts your sleep, you’re not a caffeine addict.
- TooGoodToCheck
  
  Tolerance for the win!
- allybeag
  
  Indeed. I like an espresso shortly before bedtime. I sleep like a log.
  - http://twitter.com/xinit0 Richard Murray
    
    I initially misread that as “I sleep like a jog.”
- MetalPorkchop
  
  “There’s too much blood in my caffeine system.”
http://www.facebook.com/mikey.sklar Mikey Sklar

I hope they widen the support for other natural stimulants like ephedra.

A serious over the counter stimulant abuser might be using kola nuts, guarana, and NaDH on a daily basis. I believe the first two to be caffeine based.
Marktech

Downside: unplanned flashmobs at Starbucks.
- t3kna2007
  
  Further downside: Starbucks implements demand-based pricing.
Ipo

I have the natural ability to feel intuitively when I’m jonesing for a cup of joe, so I don’t have to ask my telephone.

No, really!
http://twitter.com/Listener43 Listener43

An app? When in doubt, have another cup. It’s really quite simple, folks.
fink

For those who want to go beyond ThinkGeek candy you can get the pure anhydrous powder online for not that much. One of the supplements that work.
Wreckrob8

You mean it could never get better?
jes5199

But some of us are mutants! “Coffee is a major source of caffeine, which is metabolized by the polymorphic cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) enzyme. Individuals who are homozygous for the CYP1A2*1A allele are “rapid” caffeine metabolizers, whereas carriers of the variant CYP1A2*1F are “slow” caffeine metabolizers”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Search&db=pubmed&term=16522833
(a test for that mutation is included in your 23andme profile.)
AirPillo

I really wish there weren’t such a huge wealth of useful applications out there locked into exclusive use on the OS of an expensive smartphone I don’t want to own.

I’d buy something like this and just run it on a home computer, but… nobody wants to sell me such a thing.
http://www.facebook.com/krazydad Jim Bumgardner

Now, if only I could optimize my Jelly Donut intake. Sigh…
cubby96

I’ve been off caffeine for the better part of 14 years. I miss the bite of a caffeinated cola in a mixed drink now and again, but I don’t miss the daily energy roller coaster and I certainly don’t miss the withdrawal headaches that lasted for several days when I quit cold turkey. I did so unintentionally at first, when I was broke in college and I quit my 12 can a day soft drink habit. I had quit spending money on anything, including soft drinks. I started to get some really serious headaches along with cravings for a soft drink. When I realized how bad my addiction was, I decided I was done with caffeine. The headaches sucked, but I was okay fairly quickly.

I’m no fanatic – I eat chocolate, I drink decaf coffee (I actually like the taste) and I don’t skip foods made with a little coffee such as tiramisu or beers brewed with a little coffee. So there is some caffeine in my system. But it isn’t part of my routine, and I don’t consider it an option to stay awake, including sources like 5-hour energy, Red Bull, etc., nor do I use other stimulants in its place.

What have I gotten for this? When I wake up, I am awake and alert. I go to bed when I am tired and I fall asleep, usually within seconds. I don’t use an alarm clock unless I am really worried about a particularly early meeting or flight. No more mid-morning or afternoon lulls and I’m not chasing the perfect cup of coffee to feed my habit.

If I were still drinking caffeinated drinks, however, this app would be right up my alley. I wonder what it would say about me. I might download it just to check it out.
t3kna2007

> How to optimize your caffeine intake

In the voice of Wooderson from Dazed and Confused: “I’m optimizing right now.” :D
Kerouac

Interesting idea, but one of the more poorly-rated apps out there.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jon-Carlstedt/1480326786 Jon Carlstedt

I like it, downloaded and using right now.
It has a good interface and gives me everythingI want to know
headfirstonly

As I get older I’ve found my tolerance for caffeine is rapidly disappearing. On four or five espressos a day I was struggling to sleep for more than a couple of hours at a stretch each night. Since cutting back to just one caffeinated drink a day I’m sleeping much better. It’s nice to wake up feeling like I’ve had a decent night’s rest again, but one cup of coffee a day? That sucks.
Shaka

I created similar app for Android over a year ago!

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.cafapppro
- Gene Poole
  
  Not nearly as user friendly. Yours is barebones, this is the info and now do with it what you will.
  
  Also the chart is not available in the free version, which I understand why you did it but still eff you ;)
Mark Cresswell

The App for people with far too much time on their hands.
http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog

Which reminds me… I drew this for a company newsletter (although, I had to explain it)