Coffee is now the second most traded commodity on the planet after oil. Most people can’t imagine starting a day without coffee and it plays a vital role in almost every aspect of our social life. However, the caffeine that is contained in coffee is contributing to the global problem of insufficient sleep that is impacting people across the world.
Caffeine is referred to as a psychoactive stimulant, meaning that it helps to keep you alert. It does a great job of this but can sometimes keep your brain too alert in times when you are trying to shut your brain off to go to sleep. Caffeine is considered to have a quarter life of 12 hours, meaning that a quarter of the caffeine content from your coffee will still be in your system 12 hours after consuming it.
Many people will believe that a coffee late in the day has no effect on them and they will still be able to sleep easily regardless. However, even if you get to sleep and stay asleep, the quality is greatly affected, and it is shown that one dose of caffeine in the evening decreases the amount of deep sleep by up to 20%.
The impact of this is that the lack of quality sleep is being medicated with more caffeine. Thus begins the dependency cycle on caffeine and continuously increasing your intake is the only way to continue reaping the benefits from caffeine.
To best way to avoid letting your caffeine intake effect your sleep is to consume your coffee earlier in the day and not have any around 8-10 hours before going to bed. For most people, this would mean consuming your last coffee around midday or early into the afternoon.
