October 15, 2021
As a Nurse, I usually drink lots of coffee especially when I'm on my night shift and I thought of this topic:
"What is caffeine's mechanism of action, and how does it affect and interrupt our sleep?"
Caffeine belongs to a group of medicines known as psychoactive stimulants. And, by the way, it's one of the few stimulants that we can give to our kids without hesitation. Caffeine, on the other hand, has a variety of effects on your sleep.
Because it is a stimulant, it is more likely that you will have difficulties going asleep or, if you do fall asleep, staying asleep, and that it will wake you up, making it difficult to return to sleep.
The second is something that many people don't realize about caffeine: its duration of action is far longer than you might think. And while caffeine has a half-life of 6 hours, it actually has a quarter-life of 12 hours. To put it another way, if you drink a cup of coffee at noon, a quarter of the caffeine will still be in your brain at midnight. So a cup of coffee in the middle of the day is the equivalent of snuggling yourself into bed and turning off the light. You down a quarter cup of caffeine or a cup of coffee and hope for a restful night's sleep, which rarely occurs.
Caffeine's third effect is to prevent you from falling asleep deeply. As a result, some individuals will tell me that I'm not really impacted by caffeine. Isn't it okay if I have a cup of coffee after dinner and fall asleep and stay asleep? Well, one typical cup of coffee in the evening, containing anywhere from 150 to 200 milligrams of caffeine, can diminish the quantity of deep sleep you experience that night by roughly 20%. To put that in perspective, I would have to age you by around 15 or 20 years to reduce your deep sleep by 20%, or you can do it every night with a cup of coffee.
Caffeine is one of those substances that can be limited. Caffeine can certainly be used strategically in the morning, but try to restrict caffeine intake after around 10 a.m., or at the very least attempt to reduce caffeine intake 14 hours before bedtime. You can also drink decaffeinated coffee, which isn't as horrible as it sounds.
Do not get carried away with coffee! 2-3 cups a day and that will be enough!