Takeaways: Drink your coffee early in the day and do not reach for more to get by in the afternoon. You will be more sleep deprived in subsequent days.
Caffeine, consumed by the average adult, has a half-life of five to six hours. This means 50% percent of the caffeine is still present, impacting the function of our body.
Let’s take it further. In 10-12 hours, the caffeine is still at quarter-life or 25% is still impacting our body.
What does that look like in our daily activities?
Let’s say that you have a cup of coffee at 2pm in the afternoon. At midnight you could still be feeling 25% impact of that caffeine.
The result, you may experience poor sleep or perhaps the inability to remain asleep throughout the night.
Even if you are one that can have espresso with dinner and fall asleep you might find yourself waking the next morning not feeling refreshed.
Why?
Caffeine decreases the amount of deep sleep a person gets during the night. This is the key restorative sleep we need to feel refreshed and recovered.
If we are not aware of the impacts, we might consume more caffeine the next day and perhaps even later in the day to get by. This in affect compounds the problem day after day.
