#EveryLittleActionCounts Week 17: Is Caffeine Your Friend or Energy Drainer?
This week is a call to mindfully evaluate your caffeine consumption and understand how it influences your energy levels. Are those morning cups of coffee and afternoon energy drinks actually the reason you feel so drained and unfocused? Could caffeine be the surprising energy thief sabotaging your productivity as a busy researcher or lecturer?
Post by Parameswari Namasivayam, PhD
Certified Health & Wellness Coach
Caffeine works in the brain by blocking adenosine from binding to its receptor, a chemical that makes you feel sleepy and relaxed. With adenosine blocked, levels of dopamine, the chemical linked to pleasure, motivation, and focus increases. This may help you to burn midnight oil to finish your task. However, it disrupts your brain’s natural sleep-wake cycle.
As a result, caffeine can lead to restlessness, anxiety, insomnia, and poor sleep quality, leaving you feeling sluggish and unmotivated the next day. When you are exhausted, you end up craving more caffeine to get through your day, creating a cycle of dependence. Without proper sleep, your productivity, brain performance, and overall health will suffer.
Beyond brain chemistry, caffeine also disrupts important hormones that impact your health goals. Research shows caffeine increases levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which is linked to increased belly fat, insulin resistance, and chronic inflammation.
Caffeine also disrupts leptin signalling in the brain. Leptin is the hormone that tells your brain you are full and should stop eating. With lower levels of leptin, your brain does not recognize feelings of fullness, making it very easy to overeat and gain weight.
To break free from relying on caffeine, academics must first recognize when their intake has become an unhealthy dependency. If you are having more than 3-4 cups of coffee per day, or experiencing sleep issues, crashes, headaches, anxiety, restlessness or other side effects, it is time to reduce coffee intake.
However, going cold turkey on caffeine is inadvisable. Weaning yourself off gradually is crucial to minimize unpleasant withdrawal symptoms like headaches, fatigue, and irritability. Replace your caffeinated beverages with healthier alternatives such as herbal teas, water, or low/no caffeine drinks. Getting enough sleep, exercise, and managing stress through meditation or relaxation methods can also reduce your need for caffeine.
For those with sleep issues, avoid caffeine at least 6-8 hours before bedtime to give your body time to clear it from your system before resting. This is because it takes about 10 hours to metabolize coffee.
I recommend the following three sources that can assist you in fostering more balanced caffeine consumption habits for optimal well-being:
While caffeine provides a temporary energy boost, its long-term impact on sleep, hormones, anxiety and health cannot be overlooked particularly for busy academics under a lot of stress. Recognizing caffeine dependency and reducing intake can restore natural energy and boost brain performance. I am happy to support your journey in developing healthier habits around caffeine consumption.
Certified Health & Wellness Coach
We would be very happy to learn more about your relationship with coffee!
Anne-Wil Harzing & Christa Sathish.
