The caffeine trap can be particularly insidious, especially for those of us who metabolize it slower. Its half-life can range from as low as 1.5 hours all the way up to 9.5 hours.
So on the high end of that scale, if you drink 3 cups of coffee, containing say 300mg of caffeine, between 7 and 10 AM then you still have around 100mg of caffeine kicking around in your system when 11pm rolls around, clogging up your adenosine receptors and disrupting your body's ability to signal to itself (and you) that it wants and is ready for rest.
[And if you don't follow any sleep hygiene practices, you are also probably depriving the body of its primary mechanism for initiating the sleep processes. You can take supplemented melatonin but it is usually only effective for short or medium-term use, and in my personal experience is way less effective than the home-grown good stuff produced in the pineal gland]
So you lose 30 minutes here, and hour there of sleep. Not necessarily every night, but on a weekly basis you find yourself worn out, mentally ready to rest and recharge, but there is a disconnect in your brain and body that doesn't allow a smooth wake-sleep transition. The longer this trend occurs, the more sleep debt you find yourself in, the more you tend to throw in another half-cup around noon from time to time just to make sure you can keep going.
Worst of all is when you hit on the realization that alcohol or some other drug can help to knock you out when you're still too wired to sleep even though you really want or need it.. unfortunately (with the possible exception of a few herbs) basically every medication or drug that puts you to sleep also negatively impacts the quality of that sleep. Which in the above scenario is going to spell out more caffeine in the routine, sooner or later, to compensate further. Do be aware that this doesn't necessarily have to be conscious realization, it is an extremely easy and I assume common habit to fall into.
If you happen to process caffeine at a 1.5 hour half life, and can conk out like a light under most circumstances, I am truly jealous. Enjoy your God-given gifts ya lucky bastard!
I don't know how tolerance plays into this, but I drink like 1L or more of coffee a day, and have done so for more than a decade, and I have never felt any difficulty falling asleep.
Well, besides some reluctance during weekdays because I just don't want the next day to arrive, because of work, so I sometimes just go to sleep later and suffer the consequences for the next following days; but during long vacations (1-2 consecutive weeks long) it's all good, even with little to no variation on how much coffee I drink or the times I wake up and go to bed compared to outside vacation, so I think the problems are not related to coffee (at least not too much).
I don't even feel "awoken" when I drink coffee, and it's always weird when I read people saying they drink coffee to feel more awake. Or to get more energy, or something.
So I don't think I've ever drank it for any reason other than the taste. Caffeinated or decaffeinated; a 325ml mug full of undiluted?[1][2] espresso, vs milk coffee; literally no (perceivable) difference to me other than taste.
If anything, when I want to "stay awake", I try to drink something very sweet. It doesn't "wake me up" like I hear people say with coffee, but it very slowly takes away just a little bit of sleepyness.
[1]: Probably the wrong term. But I mean, taking a coffee "capsule", serve with the recommended "size" (which is very small), and repeat with more "capsules" until the mug is full. I don't do this very often though.
[2]: And yes, I want to learn how to make myself a coffee that tastes almost as good, so that I can stop polluting with these disposable capsules.
Diagnosed ADHD person here. Among my acquaintances I’m known as a person who will accept coffee any time off day when I come visit. I don’t that because I really enjoy the flavor off coffee and it doesn’t seem to affect my sleep.
Anecdotally, I’ve had conversations with more than 50 people who say caffeine does not affect them who likely have ADHD or some kind of attention disorder.
For example, I was at a gas station this weekend buying coffee during a small road trip. The cashier and I we’re making small talk that it was early and I wanted my morning coffee, they said oh caffeine doesn’t affect me. When I hear something like that I usually ask if them if they have ADHD and they’ll typically respond with a yes.
There is definitely bias in my non-scientific survey, I only ask people who make the comment about caffeine not affecting them.
Do you mean it doesn’t affect their sleep? I remember the first time I tried coffee and the effect was profound, like my brain wasn’t working properly before that moment. I have also been diagnosed with ADHD, but I am affected by caffeine so maybe that’s a misdiagnosis. I also have huge variation over my life where I can sometimes handle 6+ cups without issue and other times half of a Diet Coke will send me spiraling into anxiety. It seems like it has to do with my stomach or baseline levels of anxiety, definitely worse after some sort of trauma. Maybe just a comorbidity that complicates things
I also drink a lot of coffee. I notice the feeling, but it's slight. I rarely drink energy drinks anymore so if I drink a Red Bull I do feel it. My caffeine tolerance is pretty high. I can drink coffee with dinner and sleep fine an hour later.
I believe the 1.5 hour half life is only for smokers
Edit: the mechanism seems to be due to inducing Cytochrome P450 1A2, an enzyme responsible for caffeine metabolism and many other drugs. This is also induced by diet with cruciferous vegetables and medications like Prilosec/Omeprazole. So if you find yourself sleeping better or needing more caffeine to get through the day, ingestion of these could potentially explain it. Likewise it can be inhibited by foods such as cumin or turmeric and medications, so if you notice more energy after turmeric supplementation or heightened caffeine sensitivity after eating more Indian food or your sleep is impacted when you start taking oral contraceptives, this could potentially explain why.
So on the high end of that scale, if you drink 3 cups of coffee, containing say 300mg of caffeine, between 7 and 10 AM then you still have around 100mg of caffeine kicking around in your system when 11pm rolls around, clogging up your adenosine receptors and disrupting your body's ability to signal to itself (and you) that it wants and is ready for rest.
[And if you don't follow any sleep hygiene practices, you are also probably depriving the body of its primary mechanism for initiating the sleep processes. You can take supplemented melatonin but it is usually only effective for short or medium-term use, and in my personal experience is way less effective than the home-grown good stuff produced in the pineal gland]
So you lose 30 minutes here, and hour there of sleep. Not necessarily every night, but on a weekly basis you find yourself worn out, mentally ready to rest and recharge, but there is a disconnect in your brain and body that doesn't allow a smooth wake-sleep transition. The longer this trend occurs, the more sleep debt you find yourself in, the more you tend to throw in another half-cup around noon from time to time just to make sure you can keep going.
Worst of all is when you hit on the realization that alcohol or some other drug can help to knock you out when you're still too wired to sleep even though you really want or need it.. unfortunately (with the possible exception of a few herbs) basically every medication or drug that puts you to sleep also negatively impacts the quality of that sleep. Which in the above scenario is going to spell out more caffeine in the routine, sooner or later, to compensate further. Do be aware that this doesn't necessarily have to be conscious realization, it is an extremely easy and I assume common habit to fall into.
If you happen to process caffeine at a 1.5 hour half life, and can conk out like a light under most circumstances, I am truly jealous. Enjoy your God-given gifts ya lucky bastard!