Coffee helps you sleep?

The only thing that can be linked to coffee and sleep is insomnia!!!

When someone tells you: Drinking coffee helps you sleep.

You will definitely look down on him and say:

Don't lie to me I've never had coffee before, that latte kept me asleep at 5am yesterday.

Caffeine and sleep have something in common. Both can help you perk up and perform better, whether driving, working or studying. But some people swear by a cup of coffee before a nap so you can wake up more refreshed . Drinking coffee can help us get through the day with more energy. Since the 1990s, researchers have been studying how linking coffee and sleep can help.

Well, after all, coffee is the first choice for many people to stimulate their energy. This may sound a bit like a fantasy, but after thoroughly understanding the reaction of caffeine to the body, you will understand: it turns out that drinking the right coffee will have unexpected results.

Let's start with an interesting explanation of ASAPSCIENCE

It doesn't matter if you don't understand. There are pictures and texts to tell you later.

Your Brain On Coffee

Caffeine is like a cunning trickster, playing with and manipulating the adenylate receptors in your brain. Here’s how it works:

1

There is a chemical in the brain called "adenosine" that slows down neural activity. Usually "adenosine" hangs around and hugs the adenosine receptors, so we start to feel sleepy.

Caption: Adenylate slowly accumulates in postsynapses and activates sleep-promoting receptors

2

Caffeine is an adenylate analog. When the body takes in caffeine, it locks the adenylate receptors and the position of adenylate is replaced.

Caption: Caffeine deceives neurons and replaces adenylate

3

The effect of caffeine is completely opposite to that of adenosine, which can make neurons enter an excited state faster than usual. The pituitary gland receives the signal from the neurons and instructs the adrenal glands to speed up the secretion of adrenaline, release fatty acids from adipose tissue, and increase the secretion of substances such as dopamine, thereby providing a large amount of energy to the body.

Caption: Caffeine blocks receptor activity, speeds up nerve activity, and makes people more energetic

Therefore, when we take the first sip of coffee, it only takes 10 to 20 minutes for the caffeine to travel from the small intestine to the blood and then to the brain, and the body will begin to accelerate. To understand this working principle from another perspective, we might as well suggest a coffee nap. 30 minutes after lunch, you might as well quickly drink a cup of coffee or something else containing caffeine, and then take a 20-minute nap. Coffee plus nap, the combination of the two is like attacking the opponent from two directions, I believe it will make you feel energetic.

4

The duration of caffeine's effect on the human body varies from person to person, and the caffeine stimulation effect on a healthy adult can last for about 6 hours. In other words, drinking coffee after 5 pm can easily lead to a reduction of 1 hour of sleep at night.

Caption: After 6 hours of caffeine's stimulating effect, the refreshing effect weakens and fatigue increases sharply

Therefore, it is more beneficial to sleep if you do not drink coffee or other caffeinated beverages after 5pm. It depends on the individual!!!

In a 1997 study, 12 sleep-deprived people drank a large cup of coffee, then took a 15-hour nap five minutes later. They then did some driving tests on a simulator to measure their alertness. While drinking coffee (without sleeping) already helped improve their performance, the effect was even greater if the coffee was followed by a nap.

In a two-hour simulated driving test, people who slept after drinking coffee were less likely to drive off the track. The researchers compared these data with those of subjects who did not sleep after drinking coffee and after drinking a cup of decaffeinated coffee. The results showed that taking a short nap after drinking coffee was more effective than deep sleep. Once people who slept after drinking coffee woke up, they were no longer sleepy and remained focused for several hours.

But this small study has been met with a lot of skepticism.

To understand this, people should first know the principle of the effect of coffee and other caffeinated beverages: when the human body is very tired, it will tell the brain through a signal substance called adenosine. The more tired the body is, the more this substance is. If you want the brain to know "I am tired", this substance must be docked with a specific receptor in the brain. The caffeine in coffee or other beverages can also dock with this receptor-and block the transmission of the messenger. In this way, the brain cannot know the signal transmitted by the fatigue substance.

For example, we don't know how much coffee the participants typically drank, nor do we know whether the participants were what researchers call "coffee sensitive" - ​​people who are more susceptible to the effects of caffeine.

It's amazing how different people react to coffee: if you give some people a cup of coffee in the afternoon, they'll look at their watch and refuse it because "it's already three o'clock" and "I won't be able to sleep at night" if they drink coffee. But some people can fall asleep immediately even if they drink four cups of pure espresso at night. There are three factors that cause coffee to have different effects on people: age, genes, and habits.

1. Age-related differences : As we age, our brains have fewer receptors that can dock with caffeine. A 60-year-old has less than a third of the receptors in the brain of a 20-year-old—so coffee tends to be less effective in older people.

2. Genetic reasons : Everyone has different brain receptors due to their genes. Some people's brains can better accept caffeine - coffee has a particularly obvious effect on these people.

3. Habit factor : If you drink a lot of coffee for a long time, the brain will release fewer and fewer receptors - because of habit, the effect of coffee will become smaller and smaller.

In addition to these three factors, scientists have also studied the effects of coffee on the brain, and there is good news for all night owls: after a sleepless night, the brain will react quickly. Because lack of sleep makes people more sensitive to coffee, the brain will release 20% more receptors than usual. So when you have experienced a crazy night, drinking a cup of coffee the next morning will feel particularly effective, and this is not an illusion.

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