Don't mess with 5-hr energy

A note for anyone who found this blog post while researching 5-hr energy. The stuff works pretty well. I made 3 mistakes the night I took this. 1 – I took it in the evening, which was a mistake since caffeine affects me. 2 – I drank powerade with taurine later that night, and 3 – I drank more powerade with taurine later that night.

So in retrospect, I don’t think it was the 5-hr energy that kept me up all night. I think the powerade was more to blame. But I’ve decided not to edit the post and leave it as it is, including the title “Don’t Mess With 5-hr Energy”. Should you try it? Absolutely. Just don’t take it in the evening and chase it with taurine-laced energy drinks.

I’m here to tell you a tale.

A tale that is sort of like a nightmare, only worse.

At least in a nightmare you actually get to sleep.

Sunday night i only got about 4.5 hours of sleep. Erica and I went to bed late, i didn’t sleep well, and I was up early. On Monday I was dragging. I mean really dragging. I felt like I had pulled an all-nighter. This was sort of a problem because i had a softball doubleheader on Monday night.

So on my way home from work yesterday i picked up this small bottle of 5-hr energy for $3.70 at the local Hess. On my way to my game (roughly 6:15pm) i drank about 3/4 of the bottle. The packaging says that for maximum energy to drink the whole thing, for less energy drink half. I split the difference. According to the label, you get 5 hours of energy from the equivalent caffeine of a cup of coffee, plus some other red bull type ingredients like taurine and what not. Sounded fairly harmless. A cup of coffee after dinner is never a good idea for me, but since i was dead tired already, i figured it would be just enough to get me through my set of games.

Well, the games went late, and i didnt get home until after 11pm. Erica and I went to bed at Midnight. Only problem was, my mind was as awake as someone who just fell into an ice fishing hole.

I laid in bed for an hour, until 1am, and then couldn’t take it anymore. I went downstairs, grabbed a few Cheez-its, and watched the Red Sox game on my DVR, hoping i would doze off. No luck.

At 2:30am, the game was over and i went back to bed. 3am came. Then 3:15am. Suddenly i started to realize that my window for falling asleep was quickly shutting. I had moved my alarm time back to 7am, but at what point is it even worth going to sleep?

3:30…3:45…4am. Forget it. I’m not going to sleep at this point. I was tempted to call in sick to work, but the problem is, i don’t know how much longer i would have been lying awake in bed. That crap might only give you energy for 5 hours, but it can keep you up for 10. Jack Bauer should be using this stuff to torture terrorists.

At 4:15am I woke Erica up and told her that i hadn’t slept a wink and that i was going into work. So here i sit. It’s 6:30am, the sun is shining bright, the office is about to fill up, and i feel like a pile of steaming road apples. I’ve slept less than 5 hours in the past 2 nights and I’ve got the bags under my eyes to prove it. Not sure how long I’ll last today, but i’ll give it a shot.

As for 5-hr Energy? Don’t mess around with that stuff. At least not after Noon.

Believe it or not, it actually works.