Written by Grace Arrowsmith
Does caffeine impact my energy?
Caffeine is a stimulant when it enters the body, so yes! But we have to be careful because too much, and at the wrong time can have the opposite effect on our energy.
Caffeine works in two ways
- Preventing the release of certain sleep-inducing chemicals like adenosine
- Stimulating the release of certain stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline
Caffeine and sleep
Plenty of sleeps allows us to be full of beans day to day so we want to optimise it as much as we can! Caffeine can be disruptive when it comes to sleep – read on to find out why and how to take it in a way that avoids this disruption.
Caffeine works by competing with a chemical known as adenosine. Adenosine slowly builds up during the night and completes its action during the first hour of waking. If we have our caffeine in the morning, before this, we block the release of adenosine. This means it builds up overtime, and then when the caffeine’s action has worn off we get an onset of adenosine making us very sleepy. To avoid this – all we need to do is wait an hour after waking to have our coffee, this means all the adenosine can be released and we don’t have a crash in energy a few hours later.
So don’t worry coffee lovers – you can still enjoy your morning cup of delight – just make sure you wait an hour!
We also want to consider when we have our last caffeine source of the day. Caffeine has a half life (the time after which half of its ability to affect our body remains present) of up to 6 hours! This means if you had some at 4pm, 50% of it would still be kicking around at 8pm. As a stimulant it can affect our sleep – and we don’t want this! So have your final source by 2pm to help you get those high quality Zz’s.
Caffeine and focus
Caffeine has been shown to sharpen our focus and increase our energy. It does this by increasing certain chemicals in the brain. However, it only does this up to a certain point, and past a optimal amount we can see an increase in shaking and anxiety-induced feeling.
So what can we do about it? Avoid over stimulation by limiting your caffeine intake to 400mg per day and have it no later than 2pm to prevent sleep disruption.
Interested in finding out more?
Read more on tips to optimise your caffeine intake, on our app. You can download it for free below.
