I’ve heard this is a good middle-ground between quitting coffee altogether and just keep drinking the same amount.
I love coffee. It’s a hobby for me. But there’s been advice to delay drinking coffee about 90-120 minutes after waking up because it allows the chemical in the brain, adenosine, to be accepted by its receptors and wear off. When you drink caffeine right away, it blocks the adenosine receptors and they just float around until the caffeine wears off, and then bind to the receptors making you sleepy. This is often what causes the afternoon crash.
I tried this for a week and enjoyed it. I woke up, worked out, and then had coffee instead of waking up, drinking coffee and then working out.
Yes! I actually did one week where I did wake up—gym—coffee—work and then one week where I did wake up—coffee—gym—work and noticed the days where I delayed coffee, I felt much more alert around 3 or 4. I also had to wake up 30 mins earlier on those days to do my gym class before coffee. Though I did notice I didn’t perform as well in the gym.
I wanted to stick with it, but couldn’t because 1.) I love coffee and 2.) It was really hard to wake up at the same time on days where I wasn’t going to the gym, but still delay coffee.
This is where I’ve ended up too. In addition to minimizing the afternoon crash, delaying caffeine two hours seems to keep my brain somewhat less dependent on caffeine for waking up in general.
In the past, a day with zero caffeine would leave me barely functional. Now I’m drinking about the same amount of caffeine on average, but if I happen to skip it, I can still muddle through and just yawn a lot more than normal.
I’ve heard this is a good middle-ground between quitting coffee altogether and just keep drinking the same amount.
I love coffee. It’s a hobby for me. But there’s been advice to delay drinking coffee about 90-120 minutes after waking up because it allows the chemical in the brain, adenosine, to be accepted by its receptors and wear off. When you drink caffeine right away, it blocks the adenosine receptors and they just float around until the caffeine wears off, and then bind to the receptors making you sleepy. This is often what causes the afternoon crash.
I tried this for a week and enjoyed it. I woke up, worked out, and then had coffee instead of waking up, drinking coffee and then working out.
Interesting! So when you did this, did you find that you were able to avoid the afternoon crash?
Yes! I actually did one week where I did wake up—gym—coffee—work and then one week where I did wake up—coffee—gym—work and noticed the days where I delayed coffee, I felt much more alert around 3 or 4. I also had to wake up 30 mins earlier on those days to do my gym class before coffee. Though I did notice I didn’t perform as well in the gym.
I wanted to stick with it, but couldn’t because 1.) I love coffee and 2.) It was really hard to wake up at the same time on days where I wasn’t going to the gym, but still delay coffee.
This is where I’ve ended up too. In addition to minimizing the afternoon crash, delaying caffeine two hours seems to keep my brain somewhat less dependent on caffeine for waking up in general.
In the past, a day with zero caffeine would leave me barely functional. Now I’m drinking about the same amount of caffeine on average, but if I happen to skip it, I can still muddle through and just yawn a lot more than normal.