Caffeine has a half-life of six hours, which means that six hours after consuming a substance containing caffeine, half the amount of caffeine will remain in your system. If caffeine increases alertness and makes you feel less tired, it makes sense that it can affect your sleep if not consumed in moderation. For example, it is thought that most NREM sleep happens between the hours of 11 pm and 3 am, and REM sleep more often happens between 3 am and 7 am (source). Research also shows that the time of day can affect what type of sleep you get. During your first few sleep cycles, you’ll go through long cycles of NREM sleep, followed by a few cycles of REM sleep. While the average sleep cycle lasts 90 minutes, you will go through several cycles of varying lengths over the course of a night. REM sleep gives your brain the energy it needs to keep you alert during the day, which makes it an ultra-important component of the sleep cycle. During this stage, most of your muscles are in a paralyzed state, to keep you from acting out your dreams. REM sleep is the stage where you dream the most, and it’s thought that the eye movements are related to the dreaming that you’re doing. During REM sleep, our eye movements speed up dramatically, as the name suggests. This stage is an important one – it’s where your body starts repairing muscle, strengthening your immune system, and other vital processes. Our eye movements slow down or stop, and it’s very difficult to wake us up. If someone were to wake you up during this stage, you would likely feel disoriented for a few minutes before recognizing your surroundings. Stage 3: This NREM stage is restorative sleep, the kind that makes you feel refreshed. Eye movements will slow down during this stage, and your brain waves slow down with occasional spikes in activity – you’re falling more deeply into sleep. Stage 2: During this stage, you’re still lightly sleeping but your heart rate slows down, your muscles relax significantly, and your body temperature decreases slightly. During this stage, you can be easily awakened since you’re only lightly sleeping. Here, your body is preparing to fall into a deeper sleep, your eye movements slow down, and you begin to relax. Stage 1: Stage 1 of NREM sleep is light sleep, lasting only a few minutes or so. Within those two different types, there are 4 stages of sleep: A sleep cycle normally lasts about 90 minutes and can be broken down into two different types: Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM (NREM) sleep. Sleep is a vital process that keeps our bodies functioning at optimal levels. In order to understand the effects of caffeine on sleep, let’s do a quick overview of the human sleep cycle. In addition, caffeine can also stimulate the increased production of other neurotransmitters like adrenaline and norepinephrine, leading to more alertness and awareness. Caffeine works to block the effects of adenosine in the brain, making you feel more awake and alert. Throughout the day, adenosine levels build up in your body, making you feel tired towards the end of the day. Its job is to eventually make you feel tired so that you rest when you need to. Your body produces a neurotransmitter called adenosine. So how does caffeine make you stay more awake? Good question – and the answer may surprise you. Regular or more frequent bowel movements.It travels to your brain and other parts of your body and can cause many different effects, including: After it has been consumed, caffeine is absorbed from the stomach into the bloodstream, eventually being broken down in your liver. Caffeine has a stimulating effect on the body, meaning it increases the activity coming from the central nervous system.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |