Coffee is one of the most beloved drinks worldwide. In 2020/2021 no fewer than 166.63 million 60-kilogram bags of coffee were consumed.
The caffeine in coffee gives us an energetic feeling and helps us concentrate better and perform better throughout the day. Not being able to sleep because of coffee is a common problem. What does coffee actually do to the quality of your sleep? How can I prevent being unable to sleep?
Besides coffee, there are many more factors that affect your sleep. Sleep is essential for your energy level, focus, mental stability, etc. Follow my sleep course to learn to sleep like a “bear in hibernation”.
01
Coffee before sleeping suppresses the natural fatigue signal
During the day, waste substances accumulate in our brain. This build-up leads to a feeling of tiredness, which is a signal from our brain that it is time for a ‘clean-up’.
Sleeping is then the ideal way to remove these waste substances. But when we consume caffeine, this natural fatigue signal is suppressed. As a result, we get the feeling we can keep going, even though our brain is actually asking for rest.
Example:
To understand how caffeine works, let’s take the example of CO2 emissions. Just as burning fossil fuels leads to CO2 waste, our body burns calories all day long. Although our brain weighs only 1.5 kg (less than 2% of our body weight), it is responsible for 20% of our total energy consumption. This combustion process produces waste substances, including a little substance called adenosine.
“The interesting thing is that adenosine makes us sleepy, but caffeine in coffee prevents adenosine from working effectively.”
So that means that instead of feeling tired, we stay alert, even though we are simply using up plenty of energy.
So caffeine doesn’t actually increase our energy; it simply masks our feeling of tiredness!
This means that coffee only ensures that you don’t give in to the natural process in your brain. Namely: sleeping to clean up your waste substances.
Extensive analysis of studies shows that daily use of caffeine gives no demonstrable improvement in your memory or thinking ability. Other research also shows that caffeine does strongly negatively affect your sleep.
02
Coffee and deep sleep
During a hectic working day it is nice to stay alert with coffee, but in the evening you long for a good night’s sleep, right? Studies have shown that caffeine, if still in your system at night, can shorten your sleep and reduce its quality.
You sleep less deeply. Whereas deep sleep is essential for your health. An additional disadvantage is that your brain tries to balance against constant caffeine consumption. It slowly becomes more sensitive to this ‘tiring’ molecule.
The result is that you need more and more caffeine to feel awake. But your brain keeps producing substances that make you tired, and throughout the day adenosine accumulates in your brain. When the caffeine wears off, you suddenly feel an intense tiredness.
03
How long before sleeping should you have no coffee?
It is very important to listen carefully to your body. If you feel tired, your brain is telling you to relax and maybe sleep. Ignoring or masking this signal with coffee can result in a greater need for sleep.
Drinking too much coffee can affect your sleep quality at night, causing you to reach for coffee again the next morning. It becomes a repeating cycle. Fortunately there is a way to break this! Pay close attention to what your body tells you and reduce your caffeine intake in the late afternoon and evening.
Listen to your body, and stop drinking caffeinated drinks in the afternoon and evening. After drinking a double espresso, there is still an espresso in your blood 6 (!) hours later, so keep that in mind.
04
What to do if nothing helps?
Are you already drinking less coffee and none after 2pm, but still can’t sleep? Do you even drink no coffee at all? Maybe the inability to sleep is due to something else. But don’t worry, you too can learn to sleep fully and deeply every night.
Many of my clients experienced a considerable improvement in their night’s sleep after a sleep course and woke up rested every day. Try the sleep course now!