Caffeine is a good stimulant that helps the body stay alert and focused. However, drinking coffee at the wrong time can affect your sleep.
Coffee and tea are the choices of many people when they want to stay awake during a long working day or have a quality gym session. However, unreasonable consumption of caffeine can lead to insomnia, affecting activities and life. Let’s learn about caffeine with easyhealthylive.com and the appropriate time to use it so as not to cause adverse effects on the body.
How long does caffeine last?
Caffeine can get inside epithelial cells. This means that from the first sip of coffee, a certain amount of caffeine is able to seep through your mouth, throat, esophagus and stomach. Within 45 minutes, 95% of the caffeine will be absorbed by the body and after 4-6 hours, half of the caffeine will be eliminated.
Caffeine stays in the body for a long time after drinking
Researchers have found that many factors influence an individual’s response to caffeine, such as age, gender, hormones, activity levels, diet, medications, and genes.
Another factor that affects the body’s absorption of caffeine is paraxanthine. This is one of the metabolites of caffeine. The binding of the caffeine molecules breaks down faster than that of paraxanthine.
In all animal species, paraxanthine concentrations were consistently denser and more binding than caffeine 8 to 10 hours after drinking coffee. This shows that paraxanthine lasts a long time, even longer than caffeine.
At the same time, adenosine receptors (which promote sleep) are inhibited for an additional period of time after the caffeine has been eliminated. In other words, if someone drinks coffee at lunch, it is paraxanthine that is the main reason why they stay awake at 10 pm, not caffeine.
The scientists also classified three levels of caffeine sensitivity based on specific gene sequences. You’ve probably heard of someone who drank a cup of strong coffee but was still able to sleep well 1-2 hours later. In fact, they’re not exaggerating because about 10% of the world’s population is less sensitive to caffeine.
Everyone has a different sensitivity to caffeine
Others are especially sensitive to caffeine, and even a small sip of coffee can cause dizziness, increased heart rate and insomnia. For them, drinking a cup of coffee, even early in the morning, can lead to staying up all night.
The remaining cases will have a normal response to caffeine. They were able to sleep normally after 4-6 hours of drinking coffee. To explain this phenomenon, we can consider the amount of CYP1A2 (an enzyme the body secretes to break down caffeine) varies from person to person, along with the sensitivity of adenosine receptors to caffeine.
When to drink coffee to not affect sleep?
The circadian clock is the determining factor of each person’s sleep-wake time and can change depending on the circadian rhythm in 24 hours. In the brain there is an area called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which regulates the level of cortisol (a stress hormone) in the body depending on the circadian rhythm.
Normally, cortisol levels will fluctuate throughout the day, especially when the subject is under physical or emotional stress. High levels of cortisol will keep you awake. Meanwhile, low levels of cortisol will cause symptoms such as lethargy and fatigue.
Caffeine should only be consumed when cortisol levels in the body are low
The biological clock is something to keep in mind when consuming caffeine. If you drink coffee when your cortisol levels are already very high, you can put your body under stress above normal. This is very harmful to health.
When consuming caffeine when cortisol levels in the body are low, your energy and emotions will be significantly improved. In general, cortisol levels will be highest in the early morning and will remain for a few hours after waking up, then decrease and increase slightly when you eat lunch or dinner.
So experts say the best time to drink coffee is around late morning (around 10am) until after lunchtime. This coffee drinking time will help you limit the impact on sleep and avoid unnecessary pressure on the body.
Keeping the habit of consuming caffeine within a certain time frame will also prevent the possibility of you drinking more than necessary. This is not a good habit. A 2013 study found that caffeine was the main cause of sleep disturbance for up to 6 hours after consuming it, leading to a significant reduction in the duration and quality of sleep.
Sleep quality will be seriously affected if caffeine is used at the wrong time
If you use caffeine properly, you can stay awake, improve work efficiency and exercise. However, if you are a person who is sensitive to caffeine, dosage and duration of use will be two things you need to consider before drinking coffee.
When you see any signs of an allergic reaction such as an itchy rash, dizziness, or headache after drinking coffee, you should stop drinking and consult a specialist or doctor.
If you want to know more information about diet as well as how to properly allocate time to exercise and rest, download easyhealthylive.com immediately to update useful knowledge about nutrition and bodybuilding quickly. fastest and most complete. In addition, easyhealthylive.com can also help you find a 4.0 fitness trainer, so you can practice effectively and safely anytime, anywhere.
Reference source
Caffeine and sleep: Can they co-exist? https://www.sleepadvisor.org/caffeine-and-sleep/ Accessed date: 06/02/2020
John Alen was born in 1971 and is a doctor in the healthcare and psychology fields with many years of experience. He is currently working at easyhealthylive.com, a leading health and psychology blog. Having studied at Y1 National Medical University named after IM Sechenov, John Alen is using his knowledge and experience to help improve the physical and mental health of people in the United States.
