I am neuro-compromised and a while ago I learned about the effects of coffee on such people with Multiple Sclerosis for example. It seems that coffee has a neuro toxic effect upon the HPA axis and nerve pathways often causing fatique, tiredness, or nerve pain. I switched to decaf and the nerve pain after coffee went away for me, but I still get fatigue after drinking even decaf.
Coffee does not give you energy, it just borrows what you will pay for later
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Re: Coffee does not give you energy, it just borrows what you will pay for later
#42Re: Coffee does not give you energy, it just borrows what you will pay for later
#43It’s sugar that actually gives energy. I’ve done a personal test with road trips in the past. Sugar will actually keep me going and alert for the trip. Caffeine not so much.
We all have different metabolisms. I don't get any energy from sugar, but my wife does. If she doesn't eat enough, she will have crash. Feeling hungry makes me more alert. I drink caffeine constantly (small sips with only small breaks to make new coffee) until about 16 and don't have crashes until I eat something big. Also I do "cold turkey" for two weeks every year and don't notice anything strange, the only problem is I can't really code without coffee, but those are my "no computer" breaks anyway.
With alcohol it's the same - I can drink 0.5L of vodka and next day don't have hangover and I'm blowing 0.1 promiles before breakfast (already could drive where I live, but I know myself enough that I don't try). When I start drinking, I feel effect of alcohol very soon, after one beer I feel I'm not able to drive or code.
Re: Coffee does not give you energy, it just borrows what you will pay for later
#44What I’ve read and heard recently is that if caffeine is consumed after adenosine is mostly flushed out after waking (90 minutes or so after a good rest), it seems as though it doesn’t interrupt sleep for most people that night. This is not true if you continue consuming caffeine past late morning, or early afternoon at the very latest. This causes your adenosine to be useless as caffeine will still be plugging recep…
To clarify, are you saying that you -do- need to wait a bit (90 min) after waking up before drinking it? Like - don't do it immediately? Or bad things happen?
I already know about the 'stop drinking it as early as possible' rule.
Re: Coffee does not give you energy, it just borrows what you will pay for later
#45Duh, the trick is to never stop drinking coffee and thus never having to pay back the energy plus interest. Everybody knows that.
This is supposedly also a trick for maintaining hydration while drinking diuretic beverages. (So I’ve heard about certain Belgian monks during Lent, but it’s dangerous for hopefully obvious reasons. Please do not do this!)
From what I’ve read, drinking caffeinated beverages still will give you a net positive hydration, there is some diuretic effect but it is not strong enough to offset the water in the drink.
Re: Coffee does not give you energy, it just borrows what you will pay for later
#46What I’ve read and heard recently is that if caffeine is consumed after adenosine is mostly flushed out after waking (90 minutes or so after a good rest), it seems as though it doesn’t interrupt sleep for most people that night. This is not true if you continue consuming caffeine past late morning, or early afternoon at the very latest. This causes your adenosine to be useless as caffeine will still be plugging recep…
To clarify, are you saying that you -do- need to wait a bit (90 min) after waking up before drinking it? Like - don't do it immediately? Or bad things happen? I already know about the 'stop drinking it as early as possible' rule.
Yes, that was very poorly worded but you got it right.
By waiting 90 minutes or so, adenosine will reach a reasonable baseline for daytime wakefulness.
As I understand it, adenosine will inevitably build up during the day to some degree while caffeine is occupying receptors, but not enough to really matter. However if it’s combined with remnants from the night before, or you had a ton of it when you woke up and drank coffee, you wind up getting hit with enough to actually trigger your brain to try to go to sleep. That’s why sometimes you’ll suddenly be overwhelmed with sleepiness and might even start nodding off at your desk if you had a bad sleep.
In my experience it feeds into severely inattentive mental states, even if I slept really well. It kind of ruins my work day by around 2pm.