Is your daily cup of coffee impacting your sleep? It’s possible. A recent study has shown that coffee has definite impacts on sleep. These include the length of sleep, the quality of sleep, and the ability to fall asleep.
You don’t have to give up coffee entirely to get a good night’s sleep, just don’t drink it before bed. Coffee isn’t the enemy. There are many health and lifestyle benefits that coffee provides. In order to avoid the potential effects of caffeine on your sleep, you need to be aware of them and take appropriate measures.
The article covers everything you need to know about how caffeine affects your sleep and what you can do to mitigate the effects and enjoy both quality coffee and quality sleep.
The more caffeine you have each day, the worse your sleep quality becomes, and the more drowsy you feel during the day.
The effects of caffeine on sleep mostly involve taking longer to fall asleep, sleeping less overall, and feeling like sleep was not as restful. It also includes sleeping more lightly and not as deeply, as well as waking up more often. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is less affected. During REM sleep, dreams occur and the body experiences marked changes, including rapid eye movement, loss of reflexes, increased pulse rate, and increased brain activity.
The effects of caffeine on sleep depend not only on the amount of caffeine ingested at bedtime, but also on the amount of caffeine ingested over the whole day. This is because caffeine is a stimulant, and it can take several hours for the effects to wear off.
People’s sensitivity to caffeine’s effect on sleep differs, and the reason is still being debated. A systematic review of research on coffee, caffeine and sleep in 2016 found that individuals will respond differently to caffeine based on a variety of factors, including age, sensitivity levels, regular coffee and caffeine intake, time of consumption, and genetic variability.
What is Caffeine?
Caffeine is a stimulant that naturally occurs in coffee, tea, and cacao plants. Caffeine can also be made synthetically. A “stimulant” is a substance that stimulates your brain and body on a physiological level.
Caffeine can improve alertness, mood, and mental performance when consumed in moderate doses. The stimulation can make it challenging to sleep.
We’re going to start by discussing how long caffeine’s effects last, then move on to the science behind how caffeine actually makes us more awake and alert.
Sleep Cycles
There are two types of sleep: non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM). The NREM stage of sleep is divided into three parts, with each part getting progressively deeper. The first episode of REM sleep usually occurs about 80 to 100 minutes after a person falls asleep. NREM sleep and REM sleep will alternate approximately every 90 minutes.
How Quickly Does Caffeine Hit Your System?
When you drink coffee, the caffeine enters your bloodstream through your stomach and small intestine. The process of caffeine entering your system and taking effect usually takes around 15 to 20 minutes. So you should begin to feel more alert and stimulated not long after consuming caffeine.
The amount of caffeine in your bloodstream will peak 30-60 minutes after consumption. If you want to use caffeine to its fullest potential, you should drink it about an hour before you need to be productive.
How Does Caffeine Affect Wakefulness?
Caffeine can have some negative effects, including making you feel more anxious and nervous. One of the most common effects is difficulty sleeping, poor sleep quality, or lowered energy levels.
But, isn’t caffeine supposed to make you more energetic? Yup. The surge of energy you get can actually make you more tired. Surprised?
Here’s how it works.
Adenosine Blocker
Adenosine is a hormone in the body that has a sedative effect and promotes sleep. Our bodies naturally produce adenosine, which makes us feel sleepy or groggy throughout the day. If you’re tired because you’ve used up a lot of your body’s resources, you’re producing more adenosine.
Caffeine works by taking the place of adenosine in the brain. Caffeine is a chemical that affects the brain by taking the place of adenosine. Caffeine can prevent adenosine from binding to its receptors.
This means that the adenosine our body produces cannot reach its receptors, so we do not feel tired. You will not feel tired no matter what you do, because adenosine cannot reach the receptors to signal your brain that you are sleepy.
“Caffeine Crash”
But, the body doesn’t stop producing adenosine. Even though you are using up energy, you are still producing this hormone. The adenosine has just not reached the receptors yet.
Once the caffeine has worn off, the adenosine receptors are no longer blocked. The adenosine now causes you to feel sleepy.
This is the cause of the “caffeine crash” so many people experience. Once the coffee or tea’s effects wear off, you can end up even more tired than before you drank the coffee.
Depending on how your body reacts to and metabolizes caffeine, this crash can happen after 1.5 hours or after 6 hours.
How Does Caffeine Impact Sleep?
The Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Missouri advises that consuming caffeine can negatively impact your body’s sleep schedule, even though you might not feel tired after the adenosine hits. Your circadian rhythm is based on adenosine. This means that if your body’s process of producing adenosine is not working correctly, your sleep will be affected as well.
One study showed that caffeine delays your metabolic sleep rhythm, which can have a number of effects:
- It can impact your ability to fall asleep.
- It can impact your ability to stay asleep.
- It can reduce your ability to get into a deep sleep (which is when most of the body’s restoration process happens).
- It can reduce your total sleep time. (Another study found that consuming caffeine six hours before bedtime reduced total sleep time by one hour.)
- It can make it harder to wake up in the morning (which makes you want even more caffeine).
Caffeine may help lessen the effects of jet lag. Wherever you travel in the world, you can find delicious coffee that will help you sleep evenly.
The Effect of Caffeine on Sleep in Young People
Research indicates that caffeine positively affects people who are sleep deprived by helping them stay awake and restoring their ability to think clearly. Caffeine may have negative effects on sleep, causing drowsiness during the day. This may be especially concerning for adolescents. Many adolescents use multiple forms of technology and consume caffeinated beverages late into the night to stay alert.
The study found that sleep was significantly related to the multi-tasking index, meaning that the more young people used technology and caffeine, the less sleep they got and the worse they functioned during the day. Teenagers who were better at multi-tasking slept for less than 8-10 hours on school nights. Caffeine consumption tended to be 76% higher in teenagers who fell asleep during school than in those who did not fall asleep. The study shows that these teenagers were not able to function properly during the day because they were too tired, not because of the effects of caffeine.
A separate survey found that 95% of adolescents use caffeine, most often in the form of soft drinks or soda, but also coffee. People who drank both coffee and soda expected more energy enhancement from caffeine than those who just drank soda, were more likely to get up early, and reported more daytime sleepiness. This led to the use of caffeine to help them get through the day.
During an exam period, a study found that students’ sleep quality and alcohol consumption decreased while their stress and caffeine consumption increased. The authors concluded that sex, age, health status, as well as the amounts of alcohol and caffeine consumed had no significant influence on overall sleep quality, even though students shortened their time in bed and showed symptoms of insomnia.
Caffeine, Jet Lag, and Shift Work
If you have jet lag or a shift work sleep disorder, you may be sleepier than usual and more likely to make mistakes or have an accident. A circadian rhythm sleep disorder that makes it difficult to sleep during normal nighttime hours and leads to excessive sleepiness during the day, affecting people who work nontraditional hours.
A systematic review has found that caffeine may help people who work shifts or have jet lag. This study does not include data for people over the age of 40, who are more likely to be affected by this issue. Further research is needed in this area in order to draw more concrete conclusions.
Research in Shift Workers
A study looking at ways to combat sleepiness associated with working at night found that a combination of napping and drinking coffee was the most effective method for staying alert. After individuals consumed caffeine, they reported feeling less sleepy while working a night shift.
Caffeine has been shown to increase alertness and clear-headedness after a period of wakefulness, but can also disturb subsequent daytime recovery sleep. Caffeine affects the body in a way that raises the core temperature, and this makes it harder to fall asleep. In addition, caffeine consumed close to the body’s natural low point for alertness is likely to still be affecting sleep when the person tries to sleep again 5 hours later, potentially causing sleep problems.
Caffeine and Jet Lag
You may experience jet lag after flying across different time zones. This can cause you to feel extremely sleepy or wakeful at times when you should be sleeping or awake. To minimize jet lag, it is best to adjust to the new time zone as quickly as possible by sleeping, waking, and eating at times that are appropriate for that area. Coffee may help people who are experiencing jet lag to stay alert and manage feelings of sleepiness.
Studies show that caffeine can help people who have jet lag perform better. If you are only stopping over in a different time zone for a day or two, it may not be a good idea to adjust to the local time. According to one study, the best way to stay awake and get enough sleep is to take naps, drink moderate amounts of caffeine, and use sleeping aids sparingly.
How to Prevent Caffeine-Related Sleep Issues
You can drink coffee without worrying about staying up all night. Some extra measures you may want to take if you have noticed an effect from caffeine intake.
1. Track your caffeine intake.
Make a note of the time of day you’re consuming caffeine, whether it’s coffee or tea, and how much caffeine is in it. Different coffee drinks contain varying amounts of caffeine.
Then, keep a log of how you feel afterward. When do you feel most alert? When do you start to see a caffeine crash? How did you sleep that night?
For a week or more, keep a diary to see how your body is affected by caffeine.
2. Don’t drink caffeine in the evening.
How much coffee you can drink during the day without it affecting your sleep at night depends on how quickly your body can process and eliminate caffeine. Most people should avoid drinking caffeine at least six hours before bedtime.
3. Know your motivations for consuming caffeine.
Our bodies build up a tolerance to caffeine. The less you drink it, the more effective it is as a stimulant.
If you want to experience the benefits that caffeine in coffee provides, such as increased alertness, drinking it on a regular basis is best.
Some people will experience withdrawal symptoms if they suddenly stop drinking coffee, even if it’s just for one day. Too much sugar can lead to problems such as headaches, moodiness, sleepiness, and low energy levels. If you go a few days without caffeine, your body will adjust and you won’t crave it as much.