My 16-month theanine self-experiment

From the discussions I've seen about theanine, the real benefit supposedly came when it was taken alongside caffeine. The thinking being that theanine moderated some of the jittery effects of caffeine, allowing the user to take higher doses of caffeine, which itself has some benefit on task concentration and focus.

I wish the author had spent time addressing that theory specifically.

Correct, this is why tea and especially ground tea leaves like matcha induce the feeling of focus for longer, they already naturally have higher levels of L-theanine with caffeine.

While reading, I was wondering about matcha, and then I saw your comment -- which jives with my personal experience too! Thanks for chiming in :)

This has been my experience with it as well. It appears to regulate the spike of caffeine from coffee. I recall reading it had to do with an enzyme that helped the body process caffeine so it attentuates the effect of the stimulant. Whether that's true, I often take one with coffee. I've also experienced similar effects chasing my morning coffee with green tea.

Would've been interesting if OP had tested that combo specifically, maybe comparing theanine + caffeine to just caffeine alone in a blinded setup

The author was apparently not interested in that hypothesis. Why don’t you do a little self-experiment, now that a method has been laid out?

(Personally, I think the existing literature by itself should be more than enough to convince anyone that orally taken theanine most likely has no effect. The reason more scientists don’t explore theanine is probably because they don’t think it’s likely to produce an interesting result.)

It's not only the jittery but caffeine also tends to make people more anxiety, l-theanine mostly takes that away.

I don't understand what people refer to when they say "jittery effects". I don't feel anything when taking caffeine, no matter the dose. Or I want to think it helps me wake up but the effect is so small that I can't be sure. It's basically just a ritual for me.

"The journalist effect" is at play here.

When you're a professional in a field or having deep insight of something, and then a journalist comes by, does a 5 minute write-up or it and misses almost every point of it but have such a cocksure presentation, backed by a big corporate media name, that a hundred year later an urban myth will persist based on the journalists hatchetjob, while ignoring every significant facet that enthusiasts spent lifetimes on refining.(Okay it's a little bit tempered by the length and efforts of the experiment, but for an n=1 monostudy I feel this presents itself with more certainty than it should)

So henceforth in all realms of the web, Theanin will be an inert compound.

Im on the other side of the spectrum. With a small dose of caffeine I get really wired, my blood pressure rises, my head hurts, I feel stressed, anxious and I can’t sleep at night even if the coffee was in the morning. With matcha it’s a similar effect but it’s less anxiety and more headache.

The theanine stimulates the NMDA receptors so it is possible that the glutamate you get from the Caffiene is not enough to stimulate your NMDA receptor. It might be that you are a fast metabolizer of Caffeine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMDA_receptor

have you tried a pre-workout style dose (it’s about 8-10 coffees in one)? The first time should give you a pretty good idea of what the “jittery” feeling is.

I googled some pre-workout and it seems to be about 200mg of caffeine, same as a can of Monster. I've drank 2 cans of Monster back-to-back a few times in my life and still not felt jittery.

I largely share experience with Kiro, I don't feel like caffeine makes me perk up at all really. I just drink Monster cause I love the flavor of some of them.

Do you have ADHD?

Most neurotypical people seem to experience jittery effects and being extremely alert while for people with ADHD it can actually make them sleepy.

Of course everyone's brain is different, it is just a correlation with many exceptions. So yeah, caffeine works differently on different people.

Personally, as someone with ADHD, I have a crazy caffeine tolerance. It helps me somewhat with focus but I don't get jittery.

I'm the same. I've taken caffeine pills and not noticed it. I can also just drink tea/coffee and then sleep.

That one's been tested. It's why it is in a lot of energy drinks. The stuff isn't cheap, you wouldn't add it for no or unsure benefit.

My feeling is it either does nothing at a low does but does make me feel anxious when drinking, an uneasy feeling in my chest.

I don't have that problem with energy drinks (even it is the caffeine equivalent of something like 8 espressos) and tea (hasn't happened ever and I drink a lot of tea)

I got my teeth whitened and I was forbidden to drink coffee for a week or so. I thought the same that coffee was just a ritual for me, but apparently I got really weird (moody, annoyed easily) when going cold turkey, so I had to go to the pharmacy and buy caffeine tablets :) That settled it for me, that coffee does have and effect on me despite not feeling these "jittery effects" as well.

I enjoy caffeine but also take some medications that exacerbate the feelings of irritability/jitteriness when combined with caffeine - anecdotally, extended release theanine taken with my coffee alleviates it.

Part of that is probably withdrawal, I would think.

The author had caffeine "90% of the time", see this comment: https://dynomight.substack.com/p/theanine/comment/98488776

experiencing withdrawal symptoms seems to me quite different than regular use having a positive benefit

I do.

I think there's another dimension of temporal tolerance to consider.

There have been times in my life where I consumed a lot of caffeine, and it brought on the paradoxical sleepy effect.

And other times where I tried to eliminate caffeine, and a fallen-off-the-wagon strong dose gets me jittery, but acclimation happens in 24-48 hours.

Same story here - few sips of coffee and my heart starts pounding and I can't sleep at all. I have found a plant / drink called yerba mate to give me the beneficial effects without the anxiety though. No headache either. It's higher in caffeine than tea but lower than coffee. Everyone is different but for anyone else out there who gets acute anxiety from most caffeine but wants the focus boost I would recommend giving it a try.

I have ADHD and caffeine very easily makes me jittery. Ordering my cappuccino 'half-caff' has terrifically improved my life. Stimulant medication, the kind prescribed by the doc, easily makes me jittery, too.

The narrative that 'stimulants calm down people with ADHD but make neurotypicals wired' never sat well with me. But I totally believe that it makes you and many other people calmer without any friction.

There must be a wide range of physiological causes and behavioral circumstances that lead to an ADHD diagnosis, such that people like me take a baby dose of methylphenidate or else I get paradoxically overstimulated and distractible and physically uncomfortable.

Or maybe my stimulant tolerance is unrelated to the ADHD and it's just enzymes. I think I had a flag for one of those SNPs that makes me sensitive to caffeine...

As I said, there are many exceptions. It is just a correlation.

There are people with ADHD for whom meds don't work at all, some for who it works in very low doses, some that need very high doses, everyone is different. Same with reactions to coffein.

Diversity is the norm in nature when talking about individuals. ADHD is super complex and how stimulants work is also super complex and the interactions, well we barely have any idea. It doesn't really say anything about your ADHD that you are more or less sensitive to stimulants other than that your are more and less sensitive to stimulants.

Like you wrote, it could be just some enzymes or whatever. Humans are just crazy complex. It is still useful to talk about fact that a statistically significant subset of people with ADHD react differently to caffeine than most neurotypicals.

For what it is worth, I envy you a lot being more sensitives. I can kill five, six, seven cups of coffee and not feel anything. It sucks.

> Stimulant medication, the kind prescribed by the doc, easily makes me jittery, too.

How do you treat your ADHD then?

I would say it's both. "booting up" and starting to be a productive human in the morning happens smoothly as I have my coffee :)

200mg, I feel nothing. 300mg, my heart races some, but still no jitters or anxiety.

I do take a stimulant but it's a lower dose and it's delayed-release in a way that makes it easier to tolerate.