Why Does Coffee Give Me Energy?
Written by: Marisa Hart
We’ve all been there: crunched for time, low on energy, a to do list a mile long with only caffeine as your saving grace in the face of a daunting day. Caffeine’s energy boost can be useful in studying, working, or, as we covered in another blog post, exercising.
Like all good things, however, caffeine has a dark side. The same chemical processes that can make one person feel focused and alert can make another person feel anxious and restless.
Caffeine is a naturally occurring stimulant found in nearly 60 plants including coffee beans, tea leaves, and cacao pods. Its use to increase energy and alertness can be traced back millennia. It acts on neurons in the brain to increase or limit certain chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters.
Although caffeine increases mental alertness and acuity, have you ever wondered why your morning cup of coffee can give you a much-needed energy boost? In this week’s blog, we’ll break down the science, benefits, and learn how to avoid the potential negative effects of caffeine!
The Rundown
Once caffeine makes its way into your brain, it does a couple things: First, it blocks neurons that produce a neurotransmitter called adenosine, a chemical that makes you feel drowsy and tired. Next, your brain releases dopamine and norepinephrine. If you haven’t noticed by now, today’s blog post will contain a lot of big words, but don’t worry, it will all make sense in the end.
Dopamine is known as the “pleasure hormone” and plays a big role in your brain’s reward system. Meanwhile, norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter associated with adrenaline, increases blood pressure and blood flow to the muscles.
It increases blood pressure and blood flow by triggering the blood vessels to get smaller, a process called vasoconstriction. And it’s the dual effect of less adenosine and more norepinephrine that’s responsible for the energy boost.
The Benefits of caffeine
While your brain processes caffeine into dopamine and norepinephrine, your liver breaks down caffeine into more chemicals: paraxanthine, theobromine, and theophylline.
Paraxanthine promotes wakefulness, theobromine opens blood vessels increasing the amount of oxygen and nutrients that go to the brain, and theophylline has similar functions as theobromine and helps with concentration (Source: Business Insider).
All together, these dynamic three help you feel more alert, responsive, and wakeful.
But what if caffeine makes me feel anxious instead of energized?
And if caffeine makes you feel more anxious than energized, you’re not alone. Norepinephrine is an important hormone in the body’s fight-or-flight function. In people prone to anxiety, excessive caffeine consumption can trigger anxiety.
"Excessive" is the key word here, but we'll go more into that below. And if you’ve had caffeine late in the afternoon, you’ve probably experienced firsthand the effect caffeine can have on sleep. Remember our friend adenosine?
Well, without it, our body doesn’t know that it’s time to go to sleep. Adenosine is an important player in our body’s sleep-wake cycle, also called the circadian rhythm, and it’s the buildup of adenosine that lets our body know when it’s time to go to sleep. So, without adenosine telling our brain and body to wind down, we remain awake and wired.
If you have trouble sleeping after consuming caffeine, try to avoid having it after 4 pm. However, if you find yourself drinking coffee all day or night without ever experiencing negative effects like sleep withdrawal, this could be traced to genetic immunity to caffeine and not necessarily related to tolerance.
Regardless, everyone is effected in different ways by caffeine intake, so it's important to understand how much is too much for your own body.
How much is too much?
Like everything in the world, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. As mentioned earlier, too much caffeine can give you jitters and negatively impact your sleep. So, how much caffeine is too much?
Doctors and scientists agree 400 mg of caffeine a day is a moderate amount for the average adult, or roughly 4-5 cups of coffee. It’s worth noting that his measurement is simply a generalization. Caffeine sensitivity depends on a variety of factors.
Hormones, weight, metabolism, and how much food and water you’ve consumed can all affect how caffeine makes you feel. You might find that 200 mg is actually your max. Or that 400 mg is your bare minimum. Everyone’s different!
And most importantly, if you’re prone to anxiety or insomnia, it’s best to stick to decaf. And if you’re concerned about your caffeine intake and your health, your doctor can steer you in the right direction.
Lucky for you, cutting back on caffeine doesn’t have to mean cutting out Alma Coffee. Check out our Slumber or Dreamer decaf blends if you’re interested in limiting your caffeine intake, and let us know in the comments how caffeine effects you in good or bad ways!
106 comments
YOU WANT TO WIN A LOTTERY, SEND DR JATTO WHATSAPP MESSAGE:+234 901 616 2155
My name is Harry. I’m very happy to share my testimonies. The best thing that has ever happened in my life is how I won the lottery. I am a man who believes that one day I will win the lottery. Finally my dreams came through when I emailed Dr Jatto. I spend so much money on tickets just to make sure I win. But I never knew there was always something behind every lucky winner until the day I met Dr Jatto online, which I saw many people have talked about that he’s very great when it comes to casting lottery spells, so I decided to give him a try. I contacted this great Dr Jatto and he did a spell and gave me the winning lottery numbers. But believe me when the draws came out I was among the lucky winners. I won 60 million dollars, with this great man you can win millions of dollars through the lottery. I am very happy to meet this great man. Via Dr Jatto Website: https://drjattolovespellte0.wixsite.com/my-jattosite or his Gmail: drjattolovespelltemple01@gmail.com
YOU WANT TO WIN A LOTTERY, SEND DR JATTO WHATSAPP MESSAGE:+234 901 616 2155
My name is Harry. I’m very happy to share my testimonies. The best thing that has ever happened in my life is how I won the lottery. I am a man who believes that one day I will win the lottery. Finally my dreams came through when I emailed Dr Jatto. I spend so much money on tickets just to make sure I win. But I never knew there was always something behind every lucky winner until the day I met Dr Jatto online, which I saw many people have talked about that he’s very great when it comes to casting lottery spells, so I decided to give him a try. I contacted this great Dr Jatto and he did a spell and gave me the winning lottery numbers. But believe me when the draws came out I was among the lucky winners. I won 60 million dollars, with this great man you can win millions of dollars through the lottery. I am very happy to meet this great man. Via Dr Jatto Website: https://drjattolovespellte0.wixsite.com/my-jattosite or his Gmail: drjattolovespelltemple01@gmail.com
Hello everyone, Am Nicholas Mc i want to take out this time to thank Dr Wealth for changing my life financially, i never believe i will ever win a huge amount of money in mega million, i have been playing Lottery for a very long time now and i only win stipends, one day i was checking something in the internet and i dabble across a testimony by a woman that won through the help of Dr Wealth and she left his contact so i contacted Dr Wealth to also ask for his help and he gave me some little instruction on what i should do which i did without hesitation and the following day he sent me some number and said i should go and play which i immediately went to play on that Tuesday, i didn’t actually believe 100\% that i was going to win but to my great shuck my numbers was the winning numbers that appears on the board i also fainted i was confused because i have never won that big amount before as i speak am also counted amongst the people that has won million in lottery all thanks to Dr Wealth i also want you out there to also contact him for help here are his contacts: drwealthmag@gmail.com Or WhatsApp him through +1(623)309-2420. Please tell him i referred you, i promised him i will also give a testimony about him.
Hello everyone, I wish to share my testimonies with the general public about Dr Kachi for helping me to win the LOTTO MAX, i have been playing all types of lottery for the past 9years now. the only big money i have ever win was $3000 ever since things became worse to enduring because i couldn’t been able to win again, i was not happy i need help to win the lottery, until the day i was reading a newspaper online which so many people has talked good things about best lottery cast Dr Kachi who can change your life into riches. So I contacted him and he cast the spell and gave me the hot figures. I played the LOTTO MAX DRAW Behold when I went to check and to my greatest surprise my name came out as one of the winners. I won $60 Millions Dr Kachi, your spell made it wonderful to win the lottery. I can’t believe it. Thank you so much sir for dedicating your time to cast the Lottery spell for me. I am eternally grateful for the lottery spell winning Dr Kachi did for me. I’m now out of debts and experiencing the most amazing good life of the lottery after I won a huge amount of money. I am more excited now than I ever have been in my life. In case you also need him to help you win, you can contact: drkachispellcast@gmail.com OR Call/Text number: +1 (209) 893-8075 Visit his Website: https://drkachispellcaster.wixsite.com/my-site
I couldn’t never thought I was going to get my EX lover back but the moment I contacted Dr Ughulu I got her back within 24 hours. I saw Dr ughulu on a group of United states so i visited his page and I saw he is spell caster so i decided to send him a message for him to help me bring back my wife so I texted him and i give him the reason why i text him and he said it shouldn’t bother me i am getting her back immediately i was so very happy Dr ughulu arrange everything to cast a love spell on her that brought back my wife within 24 hours. She’s now with me. I’m very grateful to know Dr Ughulu. Thank you so much sir.
Website: https://drughulupowerfulsp.wixsite.com/my-site-ughulu
EMAIL: drughulupowerfulspelltemple@gmail.com
Call number Text number: +1(252) 409-1841