for most people, so a simple guideline to follow is to stop drinking coffee after lunch, Dr. ![]() This works out to a cutoff time of about 12 p.m to 2 p.m. Sampat recommends most people have their last cup at least eight to ten hours before bedtime, which gives those two caffeine half-lives time to break down. The first thing you’ll want to tinker with is the time of day you stop drinking coffee. Sleep is foundational to good health, and if your 4 o’clock latte is impacting it then you ought to be aware of that. ![]() If, however, you’re curious about whether caffeine is keeping you up at night-or already convinced that it is-then it is absolutely worth a little experimentation. “If you don't have trouble falling asleep and you feel well rested during the day, then is fine,” Dr. If so, congratulations, and don’t change a thing, you’re perfect. Perhaps your life experience thus far indicates you are one of those people who can drink coffee at all hours and still sleep like a rock. What to do if you think caffeine is keeping you up Sampat points out, so the stimulant effects of caffeine become more noticeable and problematic. ![]() Plus, as people get older, they are more likely to have a hard time falling and staying asleep anyway, Dr. It’s not totally clear why this happens, but it may be related to the same metabolic and genetic variations we have with caffeine processing in general, Dr. Many people find their caffeine sensitivity increases with age-so if it seems like your evening espressos are all the sudden betraying you, you're probably not wrong. It’s also possible for the way caffeine affects you to change over the years. So, for example, if those liver enzymes are busy processing another drug while you’re sipping on a cold brew, the caffeine has to wait its turn to be metabolized, lengthening the amount of time it takes for the caffeine to hit you (and wear off), Dr. That liver enzyme, cytochrome P450, also metabolizes other drugs in addition to caffeine (like the beta blocker propranolol). There are also certain medications that can interact with and affect how quickly we metabolize caffeine. The more caffeine we regularly drink, the more we develop a tolerance, or decreased sensitivity-meaning we need more and more to feel its effects. We can shape our caffeine sensitivity with our caffeine-drinking habits. Then there are medical variables and lifestyle factors. “There are so many different elements with this. What’s the deal? “Like almost everything else in sleep medicine, there's really just a lot of variability here,” Dr. We all know someone who can pound two double espressos and appear impervious to its effects, as well as someone who gets jittery after a cup of black tea. But when it comes to how coffee impacts one person’s sleep versus another’s IRL, it can be a totally different story. So that’s the basic science on how caffeine can harm our sleep. (There is also strong evidence that the more caffeine you drink and the later in the day you drink it, the more likely you are to get a bad night’s sleep, which makes perfect sense considering how half-life elimination works.) Why caffeine affects everyone differently Sampat says, reducing the time spent in slow-wave sleep ,the deepest stage of sleep. Caffeine may also interfere with the way you progress through the various stages of sleep, Dr. This makes your sleep less efficient and can make you feel less refreshed in the morning. ![]() “Caffeine can increase your arousal frequency-how many times your brain wakes up each night, though you may not remember,” Dr. But caffeine can also reduce your total sleep time by interrupting your sleep throughout the night. Is coffee bad for you? Caffeine’s primary effect is that it makes it harder to fall asleep initially (also called prolonged sleep latency), Dr. And caffeine is essentially an adenosine antagonist, binding to molecules of adenosine and lessening its sleep-inducing effects, Dr. The longer you’re awake, the more adenosine you have in your system,” Dr. “Adenosine is like a sleep-inducing molecule that your brain makes while you’re awake. Caffeine acts on a chemical in your brain called adenosine, neurologist and sleep medicine specialist Ajay Sampat, M.D., assistant clinical professor at UC Davis Health, tells SELF. Coffee contains the central nervous system stimulant known as caffeine. Let’s briefly refresh ourselves on how coffee provides its signature buzz in the first place. Here’s what to know about how late you can drink coffee without sacrificing sleep. It’s a real tradeoff, and it’s hard to know if it’s one worth making. Should you ride out the exhaustion (and possibly face plant at your desk)? Or should you perk yourself up with a cup of coffee-and potentially put the good night’s sleep ahead of you in peril? It’s 4 o’clock, you can barely keep your eyes open, and you’ve got a tough decision to make.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |