Coffee contains caffeine, a common stimulant found in chocolate, soda, energy drinks, and coffee. It can be upsetting when your coffee isn’t working as it should because many individuals depend on caffeine to get them out of bed. Why doesn’t coffee wake me up?
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How Does Caffeine Make Function?
Before we get into why coffee doesn’t wake you up, let’s discuss how caffeine works in the body:
The way that caffeine works is by impersonating the adenosine receptor, which is responsible for drowsiness and sleepiness. The body gets tired and relaxed as adenosine binds to the receptor and slows down brain activity. Caffeine prevents drowsiness and boosts alertness by stopping adenosine from binding to its receptors. Anxiety levels can rise as a result of caffeine’s ability to raise adrenaline levels and the flight-or-fight response.
Why Doesn’t Coffee Wake Me Up?
There are many explanations for why, cup after cup, you keep asking yourself why you’re still tired. Here are some reasons why this could be happening:
Maybe Tolerance
The amount of coffee a person can tolerate has an impact on them. Caffeine will no longer have the same waking effect as it once did as the body becomes accustomed to dose after dose.
Dehydration
If you drink more coffee than water, dehydration might be a factor. Due to coffee’s diuretic properties, the body loses more fluid than is necessary. To restore your fluid levels, substitute 8 glasses of water for at least one cup of coffee.
Simply Put, You’re Too Worn Out!
You may also need rest rather than more coffee if you’re complaining that caffeine makes you tired. If you overwork, stay up late to finish a project, or have insomnia, you might find that coffee makes you feel even more exhausted. No amount of coffee will likely be able to keep them going at this point. Instead of a drink, they need a nap.
Coffee Type
The efficiency of your coffee in kicking off your day may depend on whether you try out new coffee brands. If you discover that caffeine no longer affects you, be aware.” it could be because you’ve switched to a coffee with a lower caffeine brand. For instance, a coffee bean like Robusta with a lot of caffeine will work better than Arabica.
Due To Sugar
It’s possible that you’re having a “sugar crash” if you’re drinking sugar-sweetened coffee.” When sugar floods the blood and is used up, your blood sugar levels spike.
Due To Genetics
Your ability to fall asleep with enough caffeine in your system to power a jet may run in the family. Each individual has a caffeine metabolizer. You might not be as sensitive to caffeine, though, depending on certain gene traits. No matter how much coffee you consume, you won’t experience the same boost.
How The Coffee Is Made
The degree to which coffee wakes you up depends in large part on how you prepare it. It won’t quite have the same kick if you normally drink espresso in the morning and decide to switch to filtered coffee.
Maybe You Are A Fast Caffeine Metabolizer
In other words, the reason why coffee doesn’t wake you up is that you’re one of the people who aren’t sensitive to its main ingredient.
An enzyme that metabolizes caffeine may function differently in different people depending on their genetic makeup.
Some people quickly break down caffeine, whereas other people have the variant that breaks down caffeine more slowly.
Therefore, you might not be able to fully experience the effects of caffeine if you have a genetic tendency to process it quickly.
Your sensitivity to caffeine is also low as a result of this.
If caffeine is metabolized quickly, you will be able to drink more coffee without feeling the negative effects associated with higher caffeine consumption, even though you won’t experience a high energy boost.
Such negative consequences may be a risk of hypertension.
There are a number of additional factors to take into account if coffee isn’t keeping you awake as long as you’d like.
Thus, factors other than just genes, such as weight, smoking status, and use of certain medications, such as contraceptives, can affect how your body processes caffeine.
The half-life of caffeine in your body is determined by all of those environmental factors in combination with your unique characteristics.
According to this study it may range between 1.5 and 9.5 hours.
How Does Coffee Aid Waking Up?
Coffee does help alert your brain — at least for a bit. Hafeez explains that caffeine improves your attention, short-term memory skills, reaction times, and how fast you process information. You’ll find that you’re suddenly more aware of your surroundings (and less likely to trip over your dog).
“The most noticeable effect of coffee on the brain is not just increased alertness; caffeine can also boost mood and cognition,” Dr. Seema Sarin M.D., head of lifestyle medicine at According to EHE Health, Bustle. She says it increases your heart rate and blood pressure, and releases small hits of the hormones adrenaline, which increases alertness, and dopamine, which is linked to pleasure. Furthermore, it functions all day long. A study published in Frontiers in Pharmacology in 2018 found that caffeine blocks the brain’s receptors for adenosine, a chemical that makes you drowsy.
Caffeine also works if you expect it to work, Hafeez says. It’s common for people to believe that coffee might make you work harder, so after an oat milk latte, you’ll start to push yourself and remain more alert. Even if you think your coffee actually makes you less focused, she says, it still may influence you to churn out those reports rapidly — because you’ll think you have to work against its effects.
What About The Myth About Adhd?
I found some really interesting information when I first started looking into the reasons why coffee doesn’t wake me up.
There was a misconception that those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) didn’t feel the same effects from coffee.
Since then, I’ve repeatedly heard the same claim: People who experience sleepiness after consuming caffeine most likely have ADHD, as this response to caffeine is associated with those who have this diagnosis.
Actually, there is no scientific proof that there is a connection between caffeine’s ability to induce sleep and people who have been diagnosed with ADHD.
I believe it’s crucial to provide this clarification because many people might be worried that their response to caffeine serves as evidence that they have ADHD.
I’m not an expert, but I can attest that I frequently felt tired after drinking a cup of coffee even though I don’t have an ADHD diagnosis.
I’ve already discussed in this article the causes of such a reaction.
Going to a specialist who can provide you with accurate information is something I would strongly advise if you still have any concerns.
Conclusion
My experience with coffee has significantly improved once I discovered why it occasionally makes me drowsy and exhausted and learned about the chemistry involved in caffeine consumption.
Even if it doesn’t always wake me up as I’d like it to, I always get to completely appreciate the flavor and aroma of my coffee.
I hope I was able to provide you with some helpful advice for maximizing its beneficial benefits.
In the comments section below, let me know whether you’ve tried any of those techniques.