You read our post title correctly: coffee can help you sleep. Don’t believe it? (After all, caffeine is used to keep us awake when we need to stay away and can make us jittery and hyper right before bed if we drink it too closely to bedtime.) Read below.
The caffeine in coffee tends to clear out of your system after just a few hours. However, the more coffee you drink, the more sleepy/drowsy you could feel once all that caffeine has left your body completely and it’s no longer giving your system that caffeine jolt we all love. Here’s why:
Drink coffee and the caffeine will suppress your adenosine receptors’ function, which makes your body produce more epinephrine and cortisol, the hormones that give your body that extra boost of adrenaline and energy. But as you drink the coffee, and even as the adenosine receptors’ function is suppressed, the body actually produces more of those receptors. Those receptors remain in your body even as the caffeine leaves.
And so what happens when the caffeine is gone? All those “extra” adenosine receptors work to make you even sleepier than before you drank that first cup of coffee.
Coffee is a Diuretic and Dehydration Also Can Cause Drowsiness
As you no doubt well know, drink coffee and a bathroom break isn’t far in your future. Coffee is a diuretic, and as you drink coffee, you could end up becoming dehydrated unless you drink water and/or other hydrating beverages.
Here’s how it works: Lack of water makes your blood thicker, which means it flows slower through your arteries, which restricts the nutrients that go to your brain. Less oxygen to the noggin’ means you’ll feel drowsy and tired.
So make sure to drink plenty of water after drinking coffee.
Night Owls Aren’t as Affected by Coffee Later in the Day as Larks Are
If you’re a “lark,” drinking coffee too late in the day could see you having a hard time getting to sleep when you head to bed. However, your “night owl” spouse and/or friends could drink coffee well into the afternoon and see no sleeplessness at bedtime. (Larks and night owls are chronotypes that describe an individual’s circadian pattern and shows the “propensity” for the individual to sleep at a particular time over a day’s 24 hours. Larks are the pro-typical “morning person,” while the night owl is self-explanatory.)
According to non-other than Scientific American, if you’re a lark and you drink coffee in the afternoon (even as “late” as around noon, but no later), coffee’s caffeine could keep you awake at night. So if mornings are when you’re more alert, you may want to aim to keep your caffeine consumption to the morning only – or certainly no later than 2 p.m. – if you want to fall asleep easily.
Meanwhile, your night owl spouse or friends may be able to drink coffee even later than 2 p.m. and have little trouble getting to sleep at night. (Try not to hate them; they can’t help it.)
Whether night owl or lark, there’s little better in the morning than a fabulous cup of coffee. Make your mornings wonderful by drinking premium, organic premium Ubean Coffee. Find one of our independent distributors today.