What is a “coffee nap”, how is coffee nap useful and how to do it correctly, how to fall asleep after coffee

Over the past ten years, coffee sales have doubled. The average coffee drinker drinks approximately 1.2 kg per year. Moreover, the timing of drinking the drink is different for everyone - they drink coffee both in the morning and in the evening, several times a day. Interestingly, coffee affects everyone differently. Some people cannot sleep all night after a cup of coffee, others sleep peacefully and do not feel invigorated, and others fall asleep after coffee as if they had taken a sleeping pill. In this article we will tell you how coffee affects sleep and what will happen if you drink it at night.

Side effect of caffeine

Adenosine, a nucleoside that is responsible for the release of activated neurotransmitters, is blocked. This leads to dilation of blood vessels and a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate. Researchers believe this plays a role in regulating sleep.

A decrease in adenosine levels leads to poor sleep quality or even insomnia. Therefore, coffee and especially caffeinated energy drinks can rob you of healthy, restful sleep. But a properly selected bed will help restore healthy sleep. Choose the most comfortable model in our bed catalog.

In addition, caffeine affects the phases of sleep, namely, it reduces the phases of deep sleep and disrupts the phases of REM sleep. This leads to the fact that a person feels sleep-deprived in the morning. During deep sleep phases, the immune system is strengthened, so disruption can lead to susceptibility to infections (such as frequent colds). Disruption of REM sleep leads to irritability, decreased ability to concentrate and poor short-term memory.

Depending on a person's sensitivity to caffeine, the severity of the effect will vary. If you are concerned about the above-mentioned problems, try to avoid drinking coffee in the afternoon and see how this affects your sleep quality. Black tea and cocoa are also considered invigorating drinks. Instead, it is better to drink herbal teas that promote healthy sleep.

How to drink coffee to stay awake

Some consumers may believe that the more caffeine that enters the body, the more alert the person feels. It is not true. Even 1-2 cups of coffee drink can affect more than half of the specific receptors of the nervous system.

The effect lasts 5-6 hours. Additional servings will not enhance the effects of caffeine, and may even lead to an overdose and unpleasant consequences.

To cheer up and concentrate on work, it is enough to drink 1-2 cups of coffee a day if we are talking about a natural drink, and 3-4 - when it is an instant one. This should be done gradually: if you drink coffee in one gulp, especially when the drink is sweet, its effect may be abrupt.

Milk can slow down, or rather prolong the effect. Experts say that coffee components combine with dairy components in such a way that the digestion of caffeine slows down and it enters the brain gradually.

When it is difficult for the body to wake up without a portion of a stimulant, and coffee does not help or begins to cause unpleasant sensations - heartburn, liver discomfort, drowsiness - you can always replace it with a cup of tea, black or green. It will help normalize the pH and will keep the body alert much more gently.

How do you know if caffeine is interfering with sleep?

If you are used to drinking coffee every day, it will be difficult to give up the drink. How do you know if drinking coffee before bed is bad for you? If any of these situations happen to you, then giving up coffee at night can help solve them.

In the evening you feel tired, but you can’t fall asleep for a long time
You can rarely fall asleep without sleeping pills
The sleep is shallow, you wake up more than three times during the night, and you feel tired in the morning.

How can I reduce my caffeine intake? First, stop drinking coffee 2 hours before bed. Try drinking strong espresso only in the morning. In addition to reducing the amount of coffee before bed, the right mattress will help you fall asleep faster. Read our material about how a mattress affects sleep and solve the problem of insomnia comprehensively.

Surround yourself with coolness

You shouldn’t expect productive work from yourself in a room with stale air, especially if you want to sleep. The warm air envelops you with pleasant fatigue, and an irresistible desire to sleep appears.

To combat drowsiness, open a window wide. Ventilation is the fastest way to change the indoor air to cleaner and fresher air.

If it's too hot outside, turn on a fan. Coolness makes the brain perk up and activate hidden resources for the normal functioning of all systems and organs.

The desktop model will cope with this task quite well. These fans are less powerful than floor-standing varieties, but they can be placed almost anywhere. Place the unit so that the fresh air flow is directed towards you.

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If you have a ceiling fan, run it for a while. By mixing the air, the room will feel cool, which will prevent you from losing concentration.

Try chewing a piece of ice - this will help you concentrate on doing your work, and thoughts about sleep will fade into the background.

Surround yourself with music

To stay awake, turn on music. The melody should be unfamiliar and irritating - in response to it, thought processes will start in the brain to recognize sounds, and you will not fall asleep.

Slow and pleasant music is not good. Listening to it, you will most likely fall into an even greater state of stupor. If colleagues are working nearby, wear headphones so as not to disturb anyone. You can move your legs and head to the beat - this way you will be more immersed in what is happening and take your mind off the thought of a cozy, warm bed.

Contrary to the common misconception that loud sounds drive away sleep, the music should be barely audible. Such background noise will keep you awake and invigorate you, while loud music will take away a lot of psycho-emotional energy, interfering with your work.

Adjust air humidity

It is very difficult to concentrate and feel cheerful if the room is damp or, conversely, too dry.

Optimal relative humidity indicators are 40-60%. Only in such a microclimatic environment will the load on all organs and systems of the body be minimal, and performance will be at the required level.

Very often in the autumn-winter period, the indoor air becomes too dry due to operating heating devices. A humidifier will help solve this problem.

Products for vigor

It's easy to recharge your energy through food. Before a sleepless night, it is better to eat a boiled egg, an omelet, a fruit salad with walnuts, and cheese. Vegetables and fruits invigorate: carrots, bananas, apples. You can snack on ham sandwiches with fresh cucumber several times a night.

It is recommended to eat oatmeal to cope with impending fatigue and drowsiness. You should not overeat, otherwise it will be difficult to stay alert throughout the day. Cranberries are a good tonic, increasing physical and mental performance. The menu is varied with cherries, grapefruits, and pomegranates. Fruits stimulate the nervous system and give strength when overworked.

A sleepless night doesn't look good

Water treatments

Try washing your face with cold water and rinsing your palms and wrists. This will help to sharply activate your consciousness. Even if it was difficult to find optimal solutions, compare data and analyze information (perception was slow), the reaction to washing was almost instantaneous.

The speed of thought processes becomes lightning fast. However, such mobilization of brain activity is one-time in nature. For the same bright next burst of vigor, you need some time to pass before the next wash.

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Can exercise reduce sleep quality?

In general, Exercise can improve sleep quality: a systematic review and meta‑analysis helps you fall asleep faster, sleep longer and better. Physical activity protects against insomnia: the more exercise, the less frequent it occurs.

Any Interrelationship between Sleep and Exercise: A Systematic Review, Comparing the effects of aerobic and anaerobic exercise on sleep quality among male nonathlete students has a positive effect: aerobic, strength, frequent and infrequent, intense and not very intense. People of all ages sleep better after activityResistance Training Improves Sleep Quality in Older Adults a Pilot Study, The Effects of Physical Activity on Sleep among Adolescents and Adults: A Narrative Review: Adolescents, Adults, and Elderly.

Moreover, elite athletes sleep better A Comparative Study of Sleep and Mood Between Young Elite Athletes and Age‑Matched Controls, recover more effectively and wake up less frequently than ordinary people after exercise.

Training time is also not particularly important. A review of Physical activity in the evening does not cause sleep problems of 23 scientific papers on the topic showed that evening activities do not interfere with night rest. On the contrary, after activity, people spend a little more time in deep restorative sleep than without exercise.

Moderately intense workouts even 30 minutes before bedtime will not prevent you from getting a great night's sleep.

The only exception is high-intensity exercise. Daily exhausting training at maximum speed reduces the quality of sleep and the physical capabilities of the body. But only professional athletes or beginners who do not listen to their body at all can drive themselves into such a state.

If you're increasing your intensity and are concerned about your sleep quality, follow these tips. Sleep in elite athletes and nutritional interventions to enhance sleep:

Eat a high protein diet.
Cut down on fat.
Don't cut calories.
Add more turkey and pumpkin seeds, rich in Phytosterol, squalene, tocopherol content and fatty acid profile of selected seeds, grains and legumes tryptophan. Melatonin is produced from this amino acid, a hormone responsible for a good night's sleep.

If you have just started training and are having trouble resting, be patient, your body will adapt. When I switched to CrossFit training, for several nights after unusual loads I suffered without sleep. But one week was enough to adapt.

Now my usual workout goes until 21:00 and ends with a high-intensity complex, after which I’m too lazy to move. On such days he falls asleep especially quickly. Sometimes you want to do it right on the way home.

Train how you want, when you want. This will only improve the quality of your sleep.
It can only get worse due to a state of overtraining or due to unusually intense exercise in the evenings. The first requires rest, the second requires adaptation of the body.
If you're concerned about your sleep during high-intensity periods, eat less fat, more protein, and tryptophan-rich foods.