Hello there. Hope you are well. If this is your first time, greetings, and here is a link to my previous blog about functional exercise that I hope you find as interesting to read as I found to write it.
In today’s blog, I would like to talk about a subject close to my heart: coffee.
For anyone who knows me, I love coffee. I love coffee in the morning. I love coffee in the afternoon. I will even have a coffee in the evening. I have always liked coffee. My wife has me drinking more tea, so I am having less coffee than before. Where I have consumed in quantity, now I like to consume in quality. I guess that with age, one of a good product is better than 2 of a mediocre product.
Anyway, I digress.
So, you must be wondering, why am I talking about coffee? Am I sharing an interest for the sake of sharing an interest? Well yes – and no.
I have an inquiring and learning mind, and I like to think about many things, including what I put into my body and how it affects my body.
I got thinking about a particular effect of coffee.
When we think about coffee, we think about something that wakes us up, but what if I told you it can actually create the opposite effect?
To understand how coffee may paradoxically cause you to become tired, let’s talk first about how it is meant to work.
How does coffee work
Caffeine is a stimulant, which means it increases activity in your brain and nervous system. It also increases the circulation of chemicals such as cortisol and adrenaline in the body. In small doses, caffeine can make you feel refreshed and focused.
According to Better Health Channel (2022), too much caffeine on the other hand can make you feel agitated and may affect your sleep. By acting on cortisol and adrenaline, coffee can also increase heart rate, make you feel more restless, and may make you feel even more tired afterward, normally as a result of your energy peaking but dropping off sharply when the caffeine wears off. Web MD (2022) also suggests that by acting on the central nervous system, it also stimulates the heart and the muscles, increasing blood pressure. This rise in blood pressure may manifest in headaches, and migraines, affect memory, and increase urine flow, potentially excreting vital nutrients and minerals from the system.
As caffeine acts quite quickly and effects can be felt 5-30 minutes after ingesting, it may not come as a surprise then that as quickly as caffeine makes you feel alert and awake, it can just as quickly make you feel the opposite.
I have also found a small 3-minute video where it breaks down what caffeine does to the brain. If you have a few minutes it’s worth a watch.
If you would like to read a more in-depth paper on the pharmacology of caffeine, I have found a really interesting paper by the Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Military Nutrition Research (2001): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/
Coffee and its effect on magnesium
While coffee does not directly affect magnesium levels already present in your body, it does, however, affect your body’s absorption of magnesium. Some signs of magnesium deficiency include agitation, anxiety, rapid breathing, muscle tremors or spasms, and irregular heart rhythm (BioBalance, 2017).
How coffee can make a person tired
Adenosine, a naturally occurring molecule in the body, helps us to feel sleepy. When we drink coffee, the body absorbs the caffeine in it, and when the caffeine reaches your brain it attaches to the adenosine receptors. Caffeine can in turn also block the effects of adenosine, causing you to feel more alert. Once the caffeine wears off though, your body may experience a build-up of adenosine, making you feel tired, and in some cases, more tired than you would usually be (Casper Editorial Team, 2021).
Summer (2022) suggests that drinking coffee to combat tiredness may actually do the opposite, as it may disturb your natural sleep cycles by keeping you up for longer, causing you to feel more tired the following day. Paradoxically, in an effort to wake up, by ingesting more coffee we further perpetuate the negative cycle of poor sleep.
Coffee is also a diuretic. Diuretics make a person pass more urine. By drinking large amounts of coffee and not supplementing them with water, we risk becoming dehydrated, which can make us feel sluggish, which may make us reach out for another coffee to wake up when we in fact actually need to be drinking more water.
How to stay awake without the use of coffee
Salem Health (2022) suggests a few ways to stay awake naturally.
One, be more active. If you have a sedentary desk job, try to get up a few times and walk about the office, or go for a short walk outside on a lunch break. By moving about, blood is pumped around the body, causing the heart to beat more and making you feel more awake.
Two, stay hydrated. As mentioned above, dehydration can make you feel sluggish. By drinking water, you help your body to feel less sluggish and may even become more awake in the process.
Three, choose a healthy snack if you need some energy. Instead of reaching for chocolate which may give you a spike in energy, this spike will also drop sharply, causing you to feel tired and crave more sugar. Have some fruit or yogurt instead if you can. These may help with slower and more sustainable releases of sugar into the blood.
Fourthly, and lastly, have a power nap if you can. A short nap of 20-25 minutes will help you feel more recharged, but be careful to not take one too close to bedtime or where the nap becomes an hour or more of deep sleep, as this may make it harder to get to sleep that night and which in turn may disrupt your sleep cycle the following day.
Closing
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, and if you know of anyone who may benefit from / appreciate the blog, please recommend it to them as well. And if you are feeling low and struggling with your mental health, please know that during this difficult time of the pandemic, there is still help out there and help available. Talk to your GP. Freephone Samaritans 116 123.
There is help out there. You are not alone.
Remember: it’s a journey. It will take time. Have patience in the process. You will get there. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, and have a lovely time wherever you are on the planet.
And remember: love yourself. And others.
Greg
References:
Better Health Channel. (2022). Caffeine. [Online]. Better Health Channel. Last Updated: 2022. Available at: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/caffeine# [Accessed 3 November 2022].
BioBalance. (2017). How Coffee Depletes Your Calcium And Other Habits That Affect Your Body’s Nutrient Levels. [Online]. BioBalance. Last Updated: 2022. Available at: https://biobalanceinstitute.com/health-news/coffee-depletes-calcium-habits-affect-bodys-nutrient-lev [Accessed 3 November 2022].
Casper Editorial Team. (2021). The Caffeine Crash: Why Does Coffee Make Me Sleepy?. [Online]. Casper. Last Updated: 2022. Available at: https://casper.com/blog/why-does-coffee-make-me-sleepy/#:~:text=Coffee%20Blocks%20the%20Effects%20of [Accessed 3 November 2022].
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Military Nutrition Research. (2001). Caffeine for the Sustainment of Mental Task Performance: Formulations for Milita. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US).
Salem Health. (2022). How to Stay Awake Naturally. [Online]. Salem Health. Last Updated: 2022. Available at: https://www.salemhealth.org/services/sleep/how-to-stay-awake-naturally [Accessed 3 November 2022].
Summer, J. (2022). Why Does Coffee Make You Tired?. [Online]. Sleep Foundation. Last Updated: 2022. Available at: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-faqs/why-does-coffee-make-me-tired [Accessed 3 November 2022].
WebMD. (2022). Caffeine – Uses, Side Effects, And More. [Online]. WebMD. Last Updated: 2022. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-979/caffeine [Accessed 3 November 2022].
A bit about the author:
I am a guy who is just over 40, and is sharing a journey of wellness and wellbeing. I am also a mental health professional with a wealth of years of experience in supporting individuals who have challenging mental illnesses and personality disorders.
Prior to my current professional role, I spent several years supporting members of the community as a fitness professional, assisting individuals with weight loss and health improvement programs.
I completed a PGDip in Mental Health Nursing in 2013, and an MSc in Advanced Practice in 2016 in which I looked at improving nurses’ level of engagement with patients with challenging personality disorders.
In 2018 I successfully undertook Clinical reasoning in Physical Assessments course, and in 2020 I commenced further training in Nurse Prescribing to train toward becoming an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, and will be looking forward to supporting those in the community with mental health support and medicinal support.
In 2015 I also undertook a Mentorship for practice (BSc Hons) course and have been supporting future nurses with their training and development. I have also recently supported a Healthcare Assistant Staff toward training in and successfully passing and achieving a Foundation Degree in Mental Health Nursing.
In my current role, I am a person looking to support the physical and mental health and well-being of the individual. Don’t think of me as a motivational coach or speaker. Think of me more as a wellness guide, as I use my mental health training and experience to suggest and advise ways to enhance your wellness and wellbeing. If you are struggling with your mental health though, please seek advice from a medical professional such as your GP.
I believe that it is a journey. It is a process. It will take time. But we will get there.
Remember: it’s a journey. It will take time. Have patience in the process. You will get there. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, and have a lovely time wherever you are on the planet.
And remember: love yourself. And others.
Thanks Greg.
I enjoyed reading this well-researched article. It has enhanced my understanding of the effects of caffeine.
I used to consume many cups of sweet coffee; several years ago I cut the sugar from coffee and, over the past few years, practically stopped drinking coffee. The effect is that I feel better. The need for a morning, afternoon or evening pick-me-up has gone, and, the best benefit is that those foggy headaches have become a distant memory.
Thank you for the feedback. I too found that I drank a lot of coffee and by drinking less coffee my energy is more stable and I have less of the ‘pick-me-ups’ as you mention.