Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with coffee and sleep

Caffiene snooze

divabat — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:58:53 -0800

Why does one cup of coffee make me sleepy? I've seen this thread, but it was more about confirming the effect rather than explaining it.

I've had an interesting history with coffee. I like the taste, and when I was a teenager I regularly had a cup of 3-in-1 coffee a day with no particular effects. In my late teens I was diagnosed with panic disorder, and I could no longer take any coffee without feeling jittery and anxious. Within the past five years I've slowly reintroduced coffee into my life, and now I can comfortably have a cup a day.

However, instead of either getting a buzz or being jittery, coffee makes me really really sleepy. As soon as I have a cup I have a deep need to take a nap, and I can be knocked out for a couple of hours. It's not particularly restful or refreshing sleep, but it's hard to fight back the urge to snooze. This is a recent development (and slightly annoying because there are times where I could use the buzz!!).

I'm usually described as "hyper" by my friends and peers, though that usually depends on the situation - in fun energetic environments I can be very vibrant and exuberant, though when I'm at home I'm usually sloth-like and lazy. I sleep about 7-8 hours a night; the sun awakes me, so I'm usually up just before 5, and for the first few hours (if I'm not having to be awake early for any particular reason) I vacillate between mucking around on my laptop and snoozing. I don't deal well with late nights - if I'm not distracted by something I usually clamour for my bed by midnight at the latest.

Guarana, ginseng, and other energy drinks & supplements of that ilk give me a headache. There is one particular Aussie brand of energy drink (can't recall the name offhand) that hasn't effected me either way; however I've only had a small tin so I don't know if it's a fluke. I have been suspected of having ADD but have never been on treatment for it or tested professionally.

What's happening with my hormones and my brain that makes me have the opposite reaction to caffiene? Is it something I need to worry about? If caffiene makes me tired, what can I do to get a buzz (assuming that I haven't already scared people off by being highly energetic!)?

Nurze R4tch3t, c4n I h4v3 m1 t34?

sully75 — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:53:00 -0800

Can a couple of cups of tea make me totally anxious, and totally unable to sleep? Even two days later? I love, love, love black tea with milk and sugar.

I've pretty much stopped drinking it because I suspect it might make me really anxious and also mess up my sleeping, but I'm not sure.

I tend towards anxiety in the first place. Sleeping isn't usually a problem, although I've had a bit of a rough year emotionally and have had issues. Usually I go to sleep around midnight, exhausted, and then I'm wide awake at 4am. My new thing is that I get music going through my head, over and over, really loud. Usually it's music that I'm working on (I'm a fiddle player). I like fiddle music plenty, but at 2AM having the same tune going over and over in my head is no fun.

So to be clear, this definitely happens when I'm not drinking black tea.

I'm not sure if this is confirmation bias or whatever you call it. For instance, I'm housesitting at a friends house right now. We hung out till late, I had a couple cups of tea. That night I slept poorly on his futon. I didn't have any yesterday but I slept miserably.

I have a similar suspicion that it pushes my anxiety past comfortable limits, but it's hard to see a direct causation because I'm pretty anxious in general. And have been particularly anxious this fall, and have had maybe 4 cups of black tea.

Really the issue is that I'd like to drink black tea all the time, because I love it so much. But I'm afraid my head might explode. But don't want to deny myself the pleasure if I'm just a normal head case and it's not really doing much.

Any way I can figure this out?

Oh and btw I never ever drink coffee and never have. No caffeinated soft drinks (well, the occasional gourmet root beer).

Coffee Antidote For Falling Asleep?

salvia — Wed, 14 May 2008 02:14:28 -0800

I drank some coffee at 9 pm, and at 2 am, I am still wide awake. Anyone have tips for neutralizing caffeine or speeding it out of my system? Or for falling asleep while I'm still wired? In retrospect, this was a totally dumb thing to do. A couple weeks ago, though, I was almost completely immune. I could fall asleep right after having a cup.

But I've been trying to cut back, which (on the bright side) does seem to have reduced my tolerance.

Even if you read this question tomorrow, advice for others who make the same mistake might be worth posting. My google searches haven't turned up much.

Suspect Soporific

RockyChrysler — Fri, 19 May 2006 15:31:09 -0800

Could it be that a little bit of coffee before bedtime is actually helping me sleep better? I am a passionate morning coffee drinker. But I tend to stop imbibing around 8am. As a rule I am also a rather light sleeper, up several times a night for no apparent reason.

Lately, however, I've been enjoying a little cafe con leche (a couple ounces of coffee with about a pint of milk) as a nightcap about an hour before bed. I started doing this on Friday evenings, just to polish off the morning's brew that was left in the hot-pot. But I began to notice that I felt that I slept really well, better than usual anyway, on these Friday nights. Thinking this might just be a Friday effect I've experimented with this regimen on other nights of the week and found the same effect--I sleep much better; I'm faster to drop off, far less restless during the night, and I find my sleep more satisfying, too.

Could the caffeine in my coffee be the reason for all this? Can the effect of caffeine on a coffee-addict's brain have a similarly calming effect akin to that of Ritalin on the brain of the hyperactive?

Caffeine, Taste & Sleep

Gyan — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 16:54:39 -0800

Two caffeine-related questions regarding its effect on taste and sleep. I like the 'sharp' taste of colas like Coke/Pepsi. Is that a function of the caffeine or that of a pressurised carbonated liquid? What I really want to know is are there colas that present the same sort of sharpness without stimulants in them?

Which brings me to the next question: if you're a regular drinker of caffeine(three cans every two days, hardly any coffee) and you consume caffeine, say, 2-3 hrs before sleep, will that affect your ability to sleep? So far I believed it did. But yesterday, I had a Coke 90 mins before bedtime and I don't recall greater difficulty in falling asleep. So, I'm guessing that my tolerance to caffeine took care of that. Is the sleep-interference due to caffeine's effect on the autonomic nervous system or does it depend on psychoactivity?