Why do you want to sleep after coffee, because this drink should have the exact opposite effect?
Indeed, caffeine helps most people to perk up and wake up, but it does not work that way for everyone.
Let's say more: there are several reasons why you feel sleepy after drinking coffee, and below we will look at the most common of them.
Bean and instant coffee
First, it’s worth telling how they differ.
How coffee beans grow. It has a shell and “insides”, a core. The top surface is rich in an alkaloid such as caffeine. The middle contains a huge amount of theobromine. The first substance is responsible for vigor, and the second is responsible for drowsiness, relaxation, rest, which is why coffee makes you sleepy.
When regular whole-bean coffee (or ground) is brewed, the caffeine flows first into the mug and then into the consumer, constricting all blood vessels except those in the adrenal glands. It invigorates for 20-30 minutes, stimulating the entire body, after which the “theobromine effect” occurs, which makes you want to sleep and lasts about an hour. A glass of clean water will reduce this time. Therefore, in good coffee shops they always bring a glass of refreshing liquid with their coffee.
But when instant coffee is made, the entire “caffeine” shell is flattened and sent to pharmaceutical companies. That is, only theobromine remains in coffee, which puts a person to sleep. Some doctors even recommend drinking instant coffee at night to help you sleep soundly. There is very little caffeine there, somewhere around 5-10%.
A perfect storm
The map for us will be the model of a “perfect storm” (a perfect storm, an English phraseological unit denoting an event in which a rare combination of circumstances sharply aggravates the events) (Fig. 1) [1], [2]. This is a model according to which, in adolescence, sleep is influenced by physiological and social factors: on the one hand, shifting it in time, on the other, reducing its duration. This subsequently affects well-being, mood, academic performance and can cause health problems.
Figure 1. The “perfect storm” model.
[2]
Help yourself
While it is still possible to find a job that you can come to at a comfortable time, rescheduling your first lesson at school is, unfortunately, more difficult. Therefore, taking care of their own health (mental and physical) falls on the shoulders of adolescents themselves. The first thing to remember is sleep hygiene, which, fortunately, has been talked about a lot lately. Here are some principles:
- regular daily routine (same time of going to bed and waking up);
- avoiding bright, cold light half an hour before bedtime. Now on many phones you can set up an evening mode - a warmer and dimmed screen light will turn on automatically at the same time;
- Wake up at the first alarm and immediately turn on bright lights. Sleeping for five minutes does not add vigor.
These small changes can make your life easier and make waking up in the morning a little less unbearable. But there is hope that one day measures will be taken at the global level. For example, in the USA there is a social movement Start School Later in support of later start of classes for high school students [34]. If for our country 8:30 is the standard start time for classes, then in America classes can start even at 7:55! Recently, California passed a law according to which, gradually, by July 2022, classes in all schools will begin no earlier than 8:30.
Consequences of drug therapy
Some types of medications cause increased drowsiness, headaches, dry mouth and other unpleasant side effects. These drugs primarily include antipsychotics, tranquilizers, and antidepressants. The craving for sleep is also increased by some medications prescribed for hypertension, in particular, these include clonidine, amlodipine, and condiline.
Most previous generation antihistamines prescribed for the treatment of allergies have a hypnotic and sedative effect. These are diphenhydramine, pipolfen, suprastin, tavegil. Some drugs reduce concentration. When you stop taking the medication, all negative symptoms disappear.
Recommendations for use
How much coffee to drink is decided individually. If you do not drink enough clean water during the hot season and do not limit yourself to coffee, the effect of the drink can increase several times. For this reason, people with various disorders of the nervous system should carefully monitor the amount of caffeine they consume.
What can you do to avoid feeling sleepy?
Characteristic symptoms of overexcitation of the nervous system: apathy, rapid pulse, trembling hands. In this case, you need to immediately drink more water, which will reduce the concentration of caffeine in the body and make the person feel better.
To really perk up after drinking a cup of coffee, you need to give preference to a drink made from ground beans rather than instant. It contains the maximum amount of active substances and alkaloids, which disappear in the processed product.
But it is problematic to say for sure what effect coffee will have on a particular person. This area is still being researched by scientists.
If you want to cheer up, you should limit yourself to consuming substances that stimulate the nervous system. There are ways to feel a surge of energy with health benefits, for example, a contrast shower.
Social factors
As we have already figured out, from a physiological point of view, social networks and the cold light of screens associated with them are not the only culprits of late bedtime. Of course, an active social life attracts our attention to countless chats, but it is not entirely clear: this is the reason for going to bed late or a way to fill the time in which, on the one hand, you are no longer productive enough to study, and on the other, not yet so Do you want to sleep to put off all your work? In addition, there is no consensus in the scientific community about which element of sleep hygiene has the greatest impact, and therefore there are no direct recommendations from international sleep medicine and pediatric organizations regarding the use of gadgets before bed [16], [17].
Other social factors that influence teens' sleep include academic workload and peer pressure. For some, it may be the fear of failing an upcoming exam, forcing them to study all night long; for others, it may be difficult relationships with teachers or classmates that are disturbing and do not allow them to sleep. In both cases, a vicious circle is formed: problems at school can lead to anxiety, insomnia and lack of sleep, which, in turn, reduces cognitive function the next day, adds irritability and impulsivity, and therefore new problems appear that interfere with sleep.
Another factor (it can be called sociobiological) is the consumption of caffeine in general and coffee in particular. In the eyes of many teenagers, this is one of the ways to appear older by drinking a kind of “growing up drink.” But for teenagers, the daily caffeine intake is much lower than for adults; it is easy to exceed it, focusing on parents, and as a result - tachycardia, hand tremors and increased anxiety, which in no way contribute to healthy sleep [18].
Above we mainly talked about going to bed late. But its duration is limited by the time at which we need to wake up, and few of us do this without an alarm clock (and more often than not without several at intervals of “five more minutes”). The first and main requirement of society for teenagers - studying at school, college or university - is inextricably linked with the early time of waking up (at 6-7 in the morning) for the first lesson. This mismatch between the physiological need for a particular sleep-wake schedule and social demands is the cause of chronic sleep deprivation, the “perfect storm” that plagues adolescents every day and every night. In the evening, sleep is interrupted by minutes of delay in the phase of the sleep-wake cycle, a slow increase in sleep pressure, social and academic problems, and in the morning by the early start of classes, which makes healthy sleep (one of the basic human needs!) unattainable.
The graph shows a strict limitation of sleep time by social factors (Fig. 4) [19]. With the onset of adolescence, sleep time on Saturday and Sunday begins to differ significantly from that on weekdays: getting up and falling asleep later, sleeping longer on weekends is not a sign of laziness, but an attempt to enter a biologically necessary mode after lack of sleep during the work week. And this attempt is not very successful: two nights of full sleep are simply not enough for recovery. The study, conducted by researchers at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience in Singapore, involved adolescents who slept 9 hours each in the first control week, 5 days of 5 hours each in the second test week, and then 2 days of 9 hours each, reproducing weekdays and weekends [ 20]. Over 5 “weekday” days, the delta index increased and did not return to its original level. As a result, with this regime, lack of sleep becomes chronic with all the ensuing consequences, which we will talk about later.
Figure 4. Average bedtime and wake-up times on weekdays and weekends by age. Adolescents and young adults make up for the sleep time strictly limited by social factors on weekdays on weekends.
[19]
Caffeine overdose
It is extremely difficult to independently understand why coffee gives a soporific effect instead of an invigorating effect.
This is a condition similar to addiction, which occurs when a person consumes a lot of caffeine in a short time. Oversaturation occurs, oxygen ceases to reach the brain cells in sufficient volume, and the blood vessels narrow. Each subsequent cup of black drink will only aggravate the state of drowsiness, which can lead to loss of orientation in space and fainting.
A non-standard reaction of the body should be a reason to visit a doctor. Otherwise, this risks the appearance of other symptoms and the development of diseases of vital organs.
If cases of drowsiness after drinking coffee drinks are quite rare, you should think about reducing your consumption or giving up coffee altogether for a while. If you can’t refuse, you can drink a latte or cappuccino.
Dysfunction of the liver and pancreas
Unfiltered caffeine enters the brain cells and only worsens the effect of fatigue.
Drowsiness after drinking coffee drinks may indicate problems with the kidneys or pancreas. It is these organs that are responsible for the production of enzymes capable of processing those entering the body.
However, this does not mean that those suffering from diseases such as hepatitis or cirrhosis of the liver should categorically give up coffee. Such people are allowed to drink no more than two cups of weak coffee per day, it is better if it is with milk or cream. You can add coconut milk and even honey to the drink. In this case, the effect of the drink will be invigorating and will not harm the body.
Getting your body used to caffeine
Doctors recommend taking short breaks between drinking coffee.
Drinking several cups of coffee daily can become addictive. The drink will no longer give you vigor, or even become a cause of loss of strength. Increasing the dose of caffeine will lead to heart problems, but the effect will not last long - after a while the situation will repeat itself. You should give up your favorite drink for several weeks, then your sensitivity to coffee will be restored in full.
How does coffee affect your sleep?
Caffeine and sleep cycles
During one sleep cycle, you go through four stages of sleep - two light stages, deep sleep and REM sleep. Each is important to our health and well-being.
Light sleep strengthens our motor memory, deep sleep repairs tissue and supports the brain and immune system, and REM sleep regulates our emotions—to name just a few of its benefits.
Caffeine prolongs light sleep, increases the number of awakenings, and shortens deep sleep. REM sleep is largely unaffected. Without deep sleep, a person is likely to experience a loss of concentration and increased focus. Daytime sleepiness, which requires an extra cup of coffee.
Caffeine and perceived sleep quality and quantity
Sleep usually doesn't go well with caffeine. A study showed that even if you consume caffeine 6 hours before bed, you will experience sleep disruption—which means increased sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep), shorter total sleep time, and lower sleep quality.
Twelve healthy young men and women without sleep problems were recruited to participate in the study. They were told to keep sleep diaries but also used sleep monitors. Scientists measured how caffeine affected their sleep after taking a caffeine tablet at three different times: before bed, 3 hours before bed, and 6 hours before bed. The amount was 400 mg of caffeine (about 3-4 8 oz cups of coffee).
Study participants reported poor sleep after taking caffeine at bedtime and 3 hours before bed, which was confirmed by sleep monitors. They did not report any sleep problems after taking the pill 6 hours before bed, while sleep monitors still showed poor sleep quality.
In all three cases, sleep time was reduced by 1 hour.
It is well known that it takes our body about 6 hours to get rid of about half of the caffeine we consume. This is called a 6-hour half-life. This means that study participants likely had about 200 mg of caffeine still circulating in their bodies even after 6 hours—a dose that was disrupting their sleep.
From this study, we should learn not to rely on our personal perception of sleep quality, but rather to reduce our caffeine intake at the right time. You can drink strong caffeinated drinks in the morning, but remember to reduce the amount of caffeine you take during the day so you can get a good night's sleep.
Caffeine and the circadian rhythm
Caffeine can delay our body clock—also called the circadian rhythm. This is our body's circadian rhythm, which tells us when we are going to sleep and wake up, and also controls many other processes, such as the release of hormones.
It was found that caffeine can "reset" the circadian clock, delaying it by about 40 minutes. By comparison, exposure to bright light, one of the main signals that sets the circadian clock, delays it by only 20 minutes.
Vegetovascular (neurocirculatory) dystonia
Vegetative-vascular dystonia is a dysfunction of the vascular system associated with a disorder of the endocrine system (more precisely, with a change in the mechanism of neuroregulation). The disease is so common that many people do not perceive it as a serious illness. The high-risk group includes young and middle-aged women. In addition to drowsiness and headache, signs of VSD are:
- cardiopalmus,
- rapid onset of fatigue from minor physical exertion;
- feeling of lack of air (a person often sighs);
- periodic dizziness;
- pain in the heart area;
- cold extremities (especially hands and feet);
- tendency to sweat.
A large role in the development of the disease is played by hereditary predisposition, bad habits (smoking in the first place), a sedentary lifestyle, inability to withstand stressful situations, and emotional instability. VSD can develop against the background of cerebrovascular accident.
In most cases, symptoms of VSD disappear with lifestyle changes. Proper nutrition, physical exercise, adherence to a work-rest regime, and regular hardening lead to a significant improvement in well-being: drowsiness and headaches disappear, mood improves and performance increases.
In advanced cases, medications are prescribed to improve the functioning of the autonomic nervous system. The problem cannot be solved on its own; medical assistance is required.
It’s possible without coffee: how to make the morning not only good, but also cheerful.
Many people drink coffee to boost their caffeine levels to help them wake up, but sometimes it has the opposite effect. Have you ever had the opposite effect of feeling more tired when you finished your cup of coffee?
We at 1Gai.Ru decided to learn more about this strange reverse effect in order to understand why this happens and what else, besides coffee, will help you feel more energetic in the morning.
Treatment
If warning signs that are systemic in nature appear, including drowsiness and headaches, make an appointment with a specialist at the MedCom clinic in Ryazan. Experienced doctors will quickly and accurately diagnose and prescribe the correct treatment on an outpatient or inpatient basis. It has everything you need to undergo diagnostics and receive effective medical care, without queues or a bureaucratic approach. If you have any questions, please contact us by phone or through the online form.
Brain contusion
With a brain injury, negative symptoms increase gradually, so the patient’s general well-being does not always correspond to the severity of the injuries received. Drowsiness and apathy may be the only signs indicating a pathological condition. As swelling increases, tissue compression increases, intracranial pressure increases, which causes symptoms such as headache, nausea, and vomiting. Urgent care should be called if the patient is sleeping after the injury without taking sedatives.
