Is caffeine causing your sleeplessness? #TBT

Today's blog post was originally published last year:

This post is based on an article by Dr. Michael Breus, the Sleep Doctor:

Caffeine is a stimulant, the most widely consumed drug in the world. Like all stimulants, caffeine consumption needs to be managed. I’m not here to tell you to throw away your coffeemaker, or part with your beloved cup of cold-brewed coffee. But I will give you guidelines to help you manage your caffeine intake, so you can enjoy its pleasures and benefits, and avoid the downsides to sleep, health, mood, and performance that can come with over-consumption. 

We've heard lots of conflicting reports about whether coffee is good for you. According to an interesting article on quitting caffeine in The Art of Manliness:

Today, caffeine is America’s most popular drug — touted as an energy-boosting, focus-enhancing wonder supplement without any downside. 

But is this really the case? Setting aside all the hype created from millions of dollars spent by the marketers of coffee and energy drinks, what’s the truth about caffeine? And is it possible that quitting it just might help you become a better man?

Also from AoM:

How Caffeine Works 

The popular conception of caffeine is that it gives you scot-free energy. But the reality is more complicated. 

Throughout the day, your brain produces a neurotransmitter called adenosine. When it binds to adenosine receptors in your neurons, nerve activity in the brain slows down, and you start feeling drowsy. To a nerve cell, caffeine looks just like adenosine, which means caffeine can bind to a neuron’s adenosine receptor. When caffeine does this, actual adenosine can no longer bind to the neuron, which means the brain can’t get its “time to get drowsy” message. Because your brain isn’t getting adenosine, instead of slowing down, neural activity starts speeding up. 

The pituitary gland observes the increased brain activity as a signal that some sort of an emergency is going on, so it releases hormones that tell the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline (epinephrine) and cortisol. Adrenaline is the “fight or flight” hormone, and it has a number of effects on your body, including dilating your pupils, increasing your heartbeat, and releasing sugar from the liver into the bloodstream for extra energy. These reactions are why you feel a buzz after you consume caffeine. 

Besides adrenaline, your body also releases cortisol when you consume caffeine. Cortisol stays in the bloodstream much longer than adrenaline and works with adrenaline to prepare your body to fight or flee. It constricts blood vessels, increases the amount of glucose and insulin in your blood (for quick energy), and increases and partially shuts down the immune system. 

Basically, caffeine allows you to activate your physiological fight-or-flight reaction on demand. This stress response was designed to help humans deal with immediate challenges and threats, which is why occasional, short-term bouts of it can indeed be beneficial — making you feel more alert and focused. But dialing up the stress response, and elevating your cortisol all the time, even when you’re sedentary and relatively relaxed, can create problems and deleterious effects in the long-term. 

And of course that exactly describes the average American’s daily consumption of caffeine.

From an article in Forbes:

Most people start drinking caffeine because it makes them feel more alert and improves their mood. Many studies suggest that caffeine actually improves cognitive task performance (memory, attention span, etc.) in the short-term. Unfortunately, these studies fail to consider the participants’ caffeine habits. New research from Johns Hopkins Medical School shows that performance increases due to caffeine intake are the result of caffeine drinkers experiencing a short-term reversal of caffeine withdrawal. By controlling for caffeine use in study participants, John Hopkins researchers found that caffeine-related performance improvement is nonexistent without caffeine withdrawal. In  essence, coming off caffeine reduces your cognitive performance and has a negative impact on your mood. The only way to get back to normal is to drink caffeine, and when you do drink it, you feel like it’s taking you to new heights. In reality, the caffeine is just taking your performance back to normal for a short period.

Thus, the so-called health benefits of coffee are just an illusion. You're simply getting back to where you were before you drank the coffee.

Half life of caffeine

(Again from Forbes): caffeine has a six-hour half-life, which means it takes a full twenty-four hours to work its way out of your system. Have a cup of joe at eight a.m., and you’ll still have 25% of the caffeine in your body at eight p.m. Anything you drink after noon will still be at 50% strength at bedtime. Any caffeine in your bloodstream—with the negative effects increasing with the dose—makes it harder to fall asleep.

I've seen 5-6 hours and 6-8 hours for the half life. To be conservative I think 6-8 hours is good. After 24 hours you'll have 1/8th to 1/16th of the caffeine left in your body...which is pretty negligible.

How to quit caffeine

So, how do you quit or at least cut back on your caffeine consumption (which includes tea, soda and chocolate)?

From Dr. Breus:

Here’s how to scale back on caffeine the smart way: 

1. Track your caffeine intake. Spend one week consuming caffeine as you normally do, and keep a very close record of everything you ingest that contains caffeine. 

2. Start to reduce caffeine, gradually. The next week, reduce your caffeine intake by about 40mg day—that’s the rough equivalent of about ½ cup of coffee, or a little more than an ounce of dark chocolate. Target first your late-in-the-day caffeine consumption, such as your late-afternoon or after-dinner cup of coffee. Be sure to replace that caffeinated drink with something else, like decaf tea. 

3. Continue to reduce your daily caffeine consumption by this same 40 mg a week, until you’ve reached your new goal. 

A couple other tips to help you scale back on caffeine: 

• Don’t forget to account for ALL your sources of caffeine. That includes chocolate and other desserts (Jello, coffee ice cream), drinks, snacks, and medications. 

• Consume your most highly caffeinated drinks early in the day, and gradually shift to lower caffeine and then decaf, as the day progresses. Coffee in the morning, black tea at lunch, and herbal tea at bedtime is a great way to go. 

I don't drink a lot of coffee, but I do have a lot of chocolate and sodas. So, I guess I should look into at least cutting back on their consumption.

I'm thinking about doing another sleep related blog post next week.

Interesting days

Today - Coming Out Day, Sausage Pizza Day and World Sight Day

Tomorrow - World Egg Day, Old Farmers Day, Pulled Pork Day, World Arthritis Day and Vet Nurse Day

Next Thursday - Get Smart About Credit Day, Chocolate Cupcake Day, No Beard Day and Conflict Resolution Day

November 11 - Veteran's Day, International Tongue Twister Day, Singles Day, Sundae Day, Pocky Day and Origami Day