2023-09-29 16:39:17
We hear a lot of things regarding coffee: that you shouldn’t drink it following 5 p.m., that it helps prevent certain cancers… but the most widespread misconception is undoubtedly that coffee helps fight fatigue. Once and for all, we sort out the truth from the fiction.
Drink coffee to help you fall asleep
It has been proven – and time and time once more – drinking coffee increases alertness and concentration. The secret of this drink acclaimed by 83% of French people? Caffeine! A molecule which will, in some way, take the place of adenosine in the dedicated receptors. Result: the brain no longer detects adenosine! However, adenosine plays a key role in regulating sleep and wake cycles. Produced and accumulated throughout the waking phase, “it would gradually inhibit brain functioning until sleep is triggered”explains the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm)1. Especially since while adenosine contributes to falling asleep, caffeine, on the contrary, will stimulate brain activityproducing adrenaline and causing the sensation of feeling more energetic…
Could improve alertness, lucidity, reaction time, precision and even boost memory, drinking 3 cups of coffee per day would be particularly effective2 …especially for people who suffer from limited sleep. The problem? Researchers also warn regarding theimpact of high coffee consumption on sleep quality and durationlong-term.
Is coffee, the number one energy ally, actually a traitor? Excessive caffeine intake can also disrupt the entire body, from heart rate to mood, including…sleep habits! “Ingesting too much caffeine can negatively impact sleep, making you drowsy the next day.”explains the Sleep Foundation3. The problem is that drinking coffee to stay awake will tend to put us into a vicious circle: fatigue does not disappear, it accumulates ! To combat fatigue, we will drink coffee, even if it means having more cups if necessary, and, with each cup, the caffeine ingested disrupts our sleep a little more. Result ? We will have managed to stay awake… but we will have even more sleep to catch up on and certainly a lot of difficulty getting back into phase with our sleep cycle…
Another problem: as we drink coffee, we get used to it… and our resistance to the drink increases. Which means you need to drink more coffee to regain the initial effects. And it only takes 3 days for our body to resist. So “Regular consumption of caffeine for just three days is enough to cause withdrawal symptoms when you stop consuming it, including feeling more tired”3.
Is it normal to feel sleepy following drinking coffee
After 3 days, the stimulating effect of coffee on the body is no longer as striking. And, it’s not uncommon to feel tired following downing your cup of coffee. Several reasons explain this. Already there increased tolerance to caffeine means that we no longer feel the stimulating effects, but we are also more tired3 :
- blocked for a while, adenosine, in higher quantities, sends the signal to the brain that our body needs rest,
- we have accumulated a sleep delay,
- diuretic, coffee will promote dehydration. A state in which the body will tend to exhaust itself in order to function normally despite water deficiency …
Finally, if we drink our sweet coffeewe can be affected by peaks and drops in blood sugar, generating almost instantaneous fatigue in the body.
1. Sleep, Shedding light on our nocturnal activity, Inserm.
2. Expert report, Coffee and sleep in everyday lives, Dr Renata Riha, coffee&health.
3. Why Does Coffee Make You Tired?, Sleepfoundation.org.
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Hypertension: should we be wary of coffee?
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What are the health benefits of coffee?
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#coffee #fight #fatigue
