Caffeine is consumed worldwide, and it is mostly consumed in the form of coffee.
This is naturally found in certain types of tea and cacao beans and is used to boost performance in soda, chocolate, and energy drinks.
Caffeine consumption primarily aims to combat fatigue and drowsiness (1).
However, excessive caffeine intake may affect your sleep and also has some cons like anxiety, increased urination, restlessness, etc.
How Does Caffeine Keep You Awake?
Contents
First Understand – What Process Behind the Sleep, you will understand how caffeine works on this – easily?

Caffeine doesn’t give you energy, it just triggers your brain to think, that you are not tired.
It simply triggers a brain compound called adenosine (which is built up in the brain while you are awake).
During the day our muscles and brain are normally working, also when you’re awake the levels of adenosine rise each hour.
Once adenosine is released it binds to receptors in our brain, which promotes muscle relaxation and sleepiness.
As the day progresses, adenosine is released more each hour, which causes sleepiness and fatigue by triggering those receptors.
Second, understand - Now, here we will know how caffeine triggers adenosine to help you stay awake.
Caffeine and adenosine are almost similar in structure, which makes caffeine a perfect match for adenosine.
When you drink a cup of coffee, where it goes through your bloodstream to your brain receptors.
As we know, caffeine and adenosine look so similar, and this is where the caffeine is bound to the receptor, where adenosine should have been.
Now the brain stops receiving adenosine signals, which leads to an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, which keeps you alert and awake.
Basically, caffeine takes the place of adenosine, by binding to itself in receptors, which stop the sleeping process.
Third Understand - Caffeine is metabolized as time goes on, which takes at least 4 to 10 hours.
Now the receptors are opened again and adenosine goes straight to attached to them, this results in the feeling of falling asleep again.
But consuming frequent coffee to stay a person awake, can have negative effects on sleep, as well as on health also.
How much is considered To be Awake?
It depends on person to person, some people are sensitive to caffeine, but some are the opposite.
For exam – If you want to stay awake a full night, then a cup of coffee or 100 g is enough to stay awake for 8 to 10 hours.
Caffeine in coffee, content depends on many factors including:
- Which types of beans are used
- How the coffee is prepared
- If the coffee or tea is in a teabag, brewing time can also affect caffeine.
How Much Caffeine Is Disturb Sleep
Caffeine intake time may disturb sleep and the time of taking it should also be according to the condition, such as:
Before sleep: It reveals that consuming 400 mg of coffee, before 3 or 6 hours may disturb sleep (3), Which also reduces sleeping time by 1 to 2 hours.
Caffeine can also impact circadian rhythm, which can confuse our internal clock, Dr. Mike says.
It’s recommended that appropriate sleep hygiene practices are to avoid caffeine close to bedtime (4)
So make sure, to sleep and wake up at the same time, this will save you from becoming dependent on coffee.
It suggests that consuming coffee before 30-45 minutes of a workout allows a person to reach a peak during exercises.
Food and Drinks That Contain Caffeine
There are many caffeine-related foods and drinks that we consume in our daily lives. such as:
- Coffee is the most caffeine-consumed beverage, drink such as brewed, espresso, instant, decaf, and brewed.
- Tea, black tea contains more caffeine than white and green tea
- Energy drinks, use caffeine to boost performance.
- Soft drinks
- Sodas, like commercial Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew, etc
Foods that caffeine include:
- Chocolate, whether it is chocolate ice cream, hot cocoa, chips, milk, cookies, and especially dark chocolates.
- Some protein and energy bar
- Workout protein powder, supplements
- Guarana
- Some medications also contain caffeine, to provide extra strength, boost performance, etc.
- Chewing gums
Caffeine During Any Medical Condition
The FDA has approved caffeine for the treatment of apnea and can prevent and treat breathing problem premature infants (5) (6) (7).
Researchers show that caffeine has been associated with decreased all-cause mortality (8) (9).
A collage study demonstrated that considered 200 mg is safe for pregnant women (10)
One more study reveal that during pregnancy of 100 mg intake of caffeine per/day increase the chance of lower birth weight.
Caffeine may also interact with breastfeeding women and their babies.
Research has shown that a large amount of caffeine can make the babies irritable, and fussy, which may cause trouble in sleeping (12)
Caffeine Benefits
Caffeine does a lot of things in our body, which will define its pros and cons form, which include:
It can promote sudden poop, but the truth is that caffeine affects the GI system in people in different ways.
Research showed that caffeine actually releases the secretion of the hormone gastrin, which promotes digestion (13).
1. Help in weight loss: Research demonstrates that black coffee does not break your intermittent fasting, which means it can help in weight loss.
Check Out – Unspecific 10 Reasons Why You Losing Weight
2. Promote heart health: Caffeine lowers blood pressure by secreting epinephrine and adrenaline, which decreases the risk of heart attack.
3. May treat Alzheimer’s disease: Caffeine is effective in preventing β-amyloid production and memory deficits in Alzheimer’s (14) (15).
Increase focus, endurance, strength, and speed which all has been tested and found to boost workout before 60 to 90 minutes.
Side Effects
Research has shown that excessive caffeine intake can increase anxiety, headache, depression, and panic attack (16).
Excessive consumption of coffee or caffeine may show potential side effects on pregnancy outcomes (17)
Caffeine side effects are seen only when we overdo it.
It some other mild to severe side effects, which report have been made based on research on people. which include:
- Anxiety
- Restlessness
- Insomnia
- Diarrhea
- Increased urination
- Muscle twitches
- Irritability
- Facial flushing
- Irregular heartbeat
- GI upset
- Fidgeting
NOTE: people with kidney issues, avoid caffeine, which can make your condition worse.
Research has shown that more than 400 mg every day is allied with (LBW), which increases the risk of miscarriage.
Severe side effects
- Discomfort
- Ischemia
- Seizure
- Hallucinations
- Ischemia
Withdrawal Symptoms of Caffeine
Some withdrawal symptoms may also be seen which will appear in 12 to 24 hours.
Moreover withdrawal peaks at 20–51 hours, and may last up to two to nine days. its withdrawal symptoms such as:
- Headache
- Difficulty in sleeping
- Fatigue
- Decreased alertness
- sad mood
- difficulty in focus
- Not clear mind, weird thoughts
- Decrease in satisfaction
- Irritability
- Decreased energy
- Decrease in satisfaction (20)
If a person consumes a high amount of caffeine daily, then even more withdrawal symptoms are seen.
These symptoms often return after consuming caffeine, but often disappear within a few days.
Down Line
Avoid consuming caffeine or coffee shortly before going to the bed, about 3 to 5 hours.
But how does caffeine keep you awake? – Basically, caffeine replaces adenosine, by binding to itself in receptors.
Caffeine is excellent for keeping you awake, but overdoing it can disturb your sleeping pattern, which effect will be visible on your overall health.
So make sure not be depend on it, sleep on time and get up on time, because its withdrawal symptoms are worse your condition.