Caffeine is a stimulant that increases alertness and boosts energy levels. Caffeine itself doesn’t cause drowsiness. Coffee, however, is a complex beverage, and drinking it can make you feel tired at times. Here’s a look at why coffee can actually make you sleepy and fatigued, even though it’s caffeinated.
Adenosine Will Make You Sleepy When the Caffeine Wears Off
The caffeine in coffee blocks adenosine receptors in your brain from receiving adenosine, which is a neurotransmitter that causes fatigue. Although caffeine prevents your brain from receiving adenosine, it doesn’t stop your body from producing the neurotransmitter. Thus, when the caffeine wears off, there is a buildup of adenosine that will make you sleepy.
Caffeine isn’t making you sleepy, because it doesn’t impact how much adenosine your body manufacturers. It does, however, delay the effects of that adenosine so that you feel it all at once in a rush when the caffeine wears off.
Sweet Coffee Will Give You a Sugar Crash
If your coffee’s especially sweet, you may experience a sugar crash shortly after drinking it. Sugar is processed much more quickly than coffee, and it leaves you without energy after it’s used up by your body. If you drink coffee-flavored drinks that have lots of sugar but little coffee, you may actually be experiencing a sugar rush and crash, more than a caffeine boost.
Photo by Anete Lusina on Unsplash
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Coffee Makes You Dehydrated
The primary reason why coffee makes you sleepy sometimes is likely because it’s making you dehydrated.
Coffee is a diuretic. In other words, it makes you need to urinate. Drinking it to stay awake can quickly lead to a vicious dehydrating cycle that actually makes you more tired. The cycle goes like this:
- You drink a cup of coffee and soon afterwards need to use the bathroom.
- When you go to the bathroom, your body loses water.
- When your body loses water, your blood thickens.
- When your blood thickens, it moves more slowly through your arteries and veins.
- As your blood slows down, it delivers less oxygen to your body.
- Without as much oxygen, you become sluggish.
- You may reach for more coffee to combat the sluggishness, thus starting the cycle again.
Because you’re drinking coffee, you likely aren’t drinking water to rehydrate yourself. At least, you probably aren’t drinking as much as you should be.
Additionally, coffee is a vasoconstrictor, which further compounds the problem. Coffee makes your arteries and veins get narrower. As they narrow, it only becomes more difficult for your thickening blood to flow through them.
You Can Limit the Effects of Coffee
If coffee regularly makes you sleepy, there are a few things you can do to limit its fatiguing effects:
- Moderate your coffee intake. (The Mayo Clinic recommends having no more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day, which is about 2 to 4 cups of coffee.)
- Avoid coffee beverages with lots of sugar.
- Drink plenty of water with your coffee.
Learn More About Coffee
On CoffeeCademy, we frequently write about coffee and its effects on the body. To get future updates, like us on Facebook where we mention each time we have a new post.
[…] also doesn’t help that one of the major symptoms of dehydration is tiredness. Obviously, if you feel tired, you’re going to want to drink a refreshing cup of coffee to […]
The issue doesn’t happen when I drink Tea, both without sugar. as such this is a Coffee, NOT caffeine specific issue.Lots of water does help, but particularly in mornings its a real crash. Im a Tea person mostly… will reduce coffee intake, way too much of a productivity hit.
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More Infos here: driftaway.coffee/coffee-make-sleepy/ […]
I love my real coffee every morning, 2 shot cappucinno, however, in the last year it makes me so tired, I’m gutted because I only have one a day, don’t like tea in the morning, don’t like decaf?
Tea makes me nauseous
This is the biggest bUlLShIT I have read today
If strong tea makes you nauseous, you might want to do your liver tests from blood and also check if you have stomach problems (GERD, too much bile). Hope you find your problem.
Same here — though only on an empty stomach. The first time it happened, I thought I was sick with something else. Fortunately my brother was visiting and mentioned he had the same reaction. As soon as I ate some toast, I was fine.
[…] In another article written by Driftaway Coffee, it is further explained that because caffeine is taking up all the space in the adenosine receptors, the actual adenosine chemicals build up in wait until the caffeine wears off. This is where we get our inevitable crash. If we were to consume coffee in large quantities throughout the day, or in my case, several days, this buildup is only delayed until the caffeine wears off. A rush of adenosine takes over and we experience drowsiness and fatigue. (Scott, Coffee Academy. “Why Does Coffee Make Me Sleepy?” Driftaway Coffee, 16 April 2016, https://driftaway.coffee/coffee-make-sleepy/.) […]
Caffeine isn’t a specification attribute of coffee. It never has been and it never will be. As such levels of caffeine are a complete crap shoot using that delivery mechanism and often vary wildly even with the same brand. Quit trying to pretend you’re not a drug addict. Caffeine can be bought legally. Take a pill and dose precisely and properly. Take it with a decaf coffee if you must partake of that taste.
I find if I keep the coffee intake in moderation, I feel nice and alert. If I have one too many I will feel tired and lethargic.
Glad I found this article while browsing google.com – I find if I keep the coffee intake in moderation, I feel nice and alert. If I have one too many I will feel tired and lethargic. Glad it’s not just me.. moderation is key.
I’m pretty sure that when people are looking for reasons that coffee makes them sleepy they mean the effect of coffee not the hang-over. This article does not address the topic that its title advertises. Try harder author. Your article is worthless.
The author says that coffee has no effect on the amount of fatigue signals the body produces. The dehydration caused by the diuretic that coffee is, is a direct effect of specific features of coffee you can’t find answers that aren’t there
I just drink one small cup of instant coffee per day and that very instance I feel sleepy….
Sometimes I get drowsy right after I drink a double shot espresso.
Hmm, what about this theory: if you have immunized yourself to caffeine and its stimulating effects, like I believe I have after regularly drinking a lot of coffee:
(1) Wake up in the morning, perhaps still feeling tired and wanting some coffee to help wake up.
(2) Brew coffee/espresso, drink
(3) Maybe “not notice” much of a difference
(4) Within 20-40 minutes, feel a “coffee-crash”, feels like you are even more tired than before
Explanation: This feeling of extra tiredness, or “crash” you are now experiencing, is actually due to the drop-off from your 20-40 minutes of being stimulated by your coffee. i.e. the coffee is not “making you tired”, the effect from its caffeine is just not lasting long, and when it wears off you drop in your level of “stimulation” significantly, which in the end makes you think the coffee made you tired.
Thoughts? I came up with theory after brewing and drinking a double shot latte this morning, and a quad shot latte during lunch as I wanted to ensure alertness while I worked. Within an hour of my quad-shot, I felt pretty tired, more than how tired I felt after my double shot this morning. This seems to fit my theory, as the quad shot had me at even higher levels of stimulation than the double shot, so the corresponding level drop after its caffeine wore off was greater, leading to a greater sense of tiredness.
Also might be contributing, is the more caffeinated you are by your drink, the more energy your body is able to, and does, use. So when the caffeine wears off, you are left with a non-caffeinated body that also just used abnormally-high quantities of energy during the caffeinated state, leaving you with abnormally-less energy to continue your day.
I tend to get a remarkable case of the drowsies with the first few ounces of coffee I drink. This passes swiftly, & by the time I finish my cup, the boilers are lit again. This is especially noticeable if I have an alcoholic drink with lunch, & then coffee around half an hour later. I’m wide awake and feeling fine after lunch, but when we hit the coffee shop, the first few sips send me into la-la land. I actually get a bit narcoleptic for around 10 minutes. Then everything changes, & I’m back to normal again. I’m a fast metabolizer of caffeine, & believe there is some metabolite from the first few sips that causes this.
I drink a few glasses of water a day so I do stay hydrated especially in summer. Coffee (being the only high caffeinated drink that does this) relaxes me and makes it easier for me to sleep and it’s not because of dehydration. Just how my body processes it. Lately coffee has really helped me because I have swelling in part of my brain (cerebellum) so I have a constant pressure ache and 3 to 6 times a month I have had severe migraine type pain. The coffee is the only real pain relief I have had.
This post is a complete LIE DONT READ THIS SHIT, i buy water with my coffee believe it or not, and cofffeee even with water still knocks me the fuck out, so stop ur bulsshihit lieeeesssssss shit article shit journalist shit page….
i’m not very smart but I think you need electrolytes from sodium to be properly hydrated. I think without electrolytes water doesn’t really hydrate you well
Honestly, this article did not help at all. I mean this without any iota of rudeness. I sleep whenever I drink coffee. Should I be worried? How do I combat?
[…] if you are already tired, this can build up to make you more tired than you were before drinking the […]
“If coffee regularly makes you sleepy, there are a few things you can do to limit its fatiguing effects:
-Moderate your coffee intake.”
Like, Seriously?!
[…] When adenosine reaches the adenine receptors in the brain, you start feeling tired. What caffeine does is that it prevents the adenosine from reaching the receptors by taking its place. So, instead of […]
[…] go hand in hand when it comes to feeling tired. This is usually because of a vicious problem that Driftaway Coffee expertly outlined, and which we will here call the “caffeination dehydration […]
I live part of the year in Italy and I’m addicted to espresso. But I do drink far more caffeinated espresso than I should. I can drink 4 ounces without adverse effects but if I drink more than that I’m overcome by fatigue. My solution – for the moment, anyway – is to restrict myself to my usual 4 ounces in the morning and then drink decaf. Very good decaf espresso is available (Lavazza and one other brand whose name is something like Kicking Horse) so I’ll try that. I do like tea, which is an upside.
[…] Why Coffee Makes You Tired and Sleepy […]
[…] Why Coffee Makes You Tired and Sleepy […]
Now I know. Thanks!
[…] Fatigue: Bet you didn’t see that one coming, did you? But coffee can make you tired for a number of reasons. For one, caffeine blocks adenosine receptors (adenosine is what makes you tired), but doesn’t stop adenosine from being made. Once the caffeine wears off, all the adenosine your body made during that time will come flooding back. For another, coffee dehydrates you, which can make your blood flow more sluggishly and carry less oxygen around the body. […]
I do know that some people with ADHD (diagnosed and undiagnosed) have a paradoxical reaction to stimulants. It is usually explained that we’re so under stimulated naturally that by adding a stimulant will bring us up to the baseline – and we are often sleep deprived so our baseline is exhausted.
[…] also doesn’t help that one of the major symptoms of dehydration is tiredness. Obviously, if you feel tired, you’re going to want to drink a refreshing cup of coffee to […]
i don’t now but i feel good after reading this😊
Google
Here are a few of the web pages we recommend for our visitors.
[…] Download Image More @ driftaway.coffee […]
This article sucks haha, everyone report it on Google.
[…] Download Image More @ driftaway.coffee […]
[…] Download Image More @ driftaway.coffee […]
[…] skip that 20-ounce cup of coffee, because while caffeine may give you a spike in energy levels, it blocks adenosine receptors in your brain and will result in fatigue a few hours down the literal […]
[…] asleep can make you more tired as you come down from the caffeine high. The reason for this? Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors in your brain from receiving adenosine, which is a neurotransmitter that causes fatigue. If you […]
[…] Caffeine increases alertness by interfering with certain chemical processes in the brain that regulate the sleep-wake cycle. However, once the body completely metabolizes caffeine, it can make you feel sleepy. […]