Are you stuck in the caffeine cycle?

Again, this is for the adults out there who are probably feeling even more sleep deprived than normal!

Most of us turn to caffeine to help us through the early mornings and/or night time wakings. Some of us try to exercise some caution with this and don’t drink coffee or caffeinated drinks after 5ish. However, this can lead us into a slippery slope of poor quality sleep (when we get the chance!) and feeling even more tired the next day, therefore enticing us to drink more caffeine.

Dr. Matthew Walker, director of the Center for Human Sleep Science – “People are stunned when I tell them the quarter-life of caffeine,” he says. “It’s 12 hours. So if you drink a coffee at noon, at midnight a quarter of that caffeine is still in your brain.”

Caffeine is a type of drug that promotes alertness. Caffeine acts as an “adenosine receptor antagonist.” Adenosine is a substance in your body that promotes sleepiness. Caffeine blocks the adenosine receptor to keep you from feeling sleepy.

If you are used to drinking high levels of caffeine regularly for years then this probably doesn’t apply to you (as our brains are clever little adaptors over time!). But for people who are using extra caffeine to get them through the day then this will almost certainly be causing sleep disruptions for you. This can be particularly painful when you are already sleep deprived!

For more information I have provided the link to the full article by Dr Matthew Walker for you to read , just click here.

If you think this may be you then remember caffeine is not just in coffee, it’s also in a multitude of everyday products we consume, so always read the labels for their caffeine levels.