By the way caffeine doesn’t even make you not sleepy. Modafinil and amphetamines do, in different ways.
In the paragraph before that, you said you didn’t trust neurochemistry to explain how drugs work. Why do you then accept amphetamine’s mechanism of action (or at least accept that it differs from modafinil’s), but not caffeine’s?
And I’m pretty sure caffeine makes people less sleepy. It’s not as powerful as modafinil or amphetamines, but it’s effective.
And I’m pretty sure caffeine makes people less sleepy.
Which people, though? Not all of them, every time, because as a heavy user, I have noticed that coffee sometimes seems to bring on drowsiness instead of dispelling it. I say “seems to” because I’ve not done any experiments, but I’ve heard it happens to other coffee drinkers as well.
By messing with adenosine receptors caffeine reduces one of the mechanisms behind ‘sleepiness’, that is, the sleepiness you get from having been awake too much.
Because caffeine also has general stimulant effects, particularly at large doses it can also produce the seemingly paradoxical effects that stimulants have on some people. Sure, take enough caffeine and amphetamine and you can stay up and remain approximately functional. But sometimes taking stimulants makes people tired. For example, if I drink a red bull and take a couple of Ritalin tablets I can either fall straight to sleep or stay up for another 36 hours, depending on whether there is task that latches on to the ensuing over-focused attention control systems and overrides the sleepiness impulse.
(Thus goes the typical explanation that I hear from various sources. I take it with a grain of salt. I trust the actual results of experiments somewhat more than the stories that get told in the accompanying discussion.)
My parents drink coffee before going to bed. I’ve always assumed that it was because withdrawal during the night would be worse than the “stay awake” effect, but maybe there’s another explanation.
I’ve found that caffeinated sleep tends to be fairly satisfying and invigorating. The trick (for me, anyway) is to fall asleep before full onset. 100mg caffeine pills do the job nicely, assuming I’m sleepy enough to nod off in time. The penalty for failure is pretty stiff though—I’ve lost half a night’s sleep that way.
Curiously, I’ve never experienced any sort of withdrawal symptoms from caffeine. When I’ve had a reason to stop drinking coffee and tea for a week, I’ve simply done so with no discomfort.
Caffeine might increase energy levels, and do other things, but it is ridiculously inaccurate to say “caffeine makes you less sleepy” as its main effect. Try modafinil/caffeine double blind test—modafinil is not “stronger caffeine”, it’s completely different, by actually reducing sleepiness without any energy boost. Amphetamines are even more complicates.
In the paragraph before that, you said you didn’t trust neurochemistry to explain how drugs work. Why do you then accept amphetamine’s mechanism of action (or at least accept that it differs from modafinil’s), but not caffeine’s?
And I’m pretty sure caffeine makes people less sleepy. It’s not as powerful as modafinil or amphetamines, but it’s effective.
Which people, though? Not all of them, every time, because as a heavy user, I have noticed that coffee sometimes seems to bring on drowsiness instead of dispelling it. I say “seems to” because I’ve not done any experiments, but I’ve heard it happens to other coffee drinkers as well.
By messing with adenosine receptors caffeine reduces one of the mechanisms behind ‘sleepiness’, that is, the sleepiness you get from having been awake too much.
Because caffeine also has general stimulant effects, particularly at large doses it can also produce the seemingly paradoxical effects that stimulants have on some people. Sure, take enough caffeine and amphetamine and you can stay up and remain approximately functional. But sometimes taking stimulants makes people tired. For example, if I drink a red bull and take a couple of Ritalin tablets I can either fall straight to sleep or stay up for another 36 hours, depending on whether there is task that latches on to the ensuing over-focused attention control systems and overrides the sleepiness impulse.
(Thus goes the typical explanation that I hear from various sources. I take it with a grain of salt. I trust the actual results of experiments somewhat more than the stories that get told in the accompanying discussion.)
My parents drink coffee before going to bed. I’ve always assumed that it was because withdrawal during the night would be worse than the “stay awake” effect, but maybe there’s another explanation.
That sounded more interesting out of context than it should have.
Ha! And totally unintentional, I assure you :)
I’ve found that caffeinated sleep tends to be fairly satisfying and invigorating. The trick (for me, anyway) is to fall asleep before full onset. 100mg caffeine pills do the job nicely, assuming I’m sleepy enough to nod off in time. The penalty for failure is pretty stiff though—I’ve lost half a night’s sleep that way.
Curiously, I’ve never experienced any sort of withdrawal symptoms from caffeine. When I’ve had a reason to stop drinking coffee and tea for a week, I’ve simply done so with no discomfort.
true, I usually feel sleepy after drinking coffee-but I rarely if ever drink it anyway.
Caffeine might increase energy levels, and do other things, but it is ridiculously inaccurate to say “caffeine makes you less sleepy” as its main effect. Try modafinil/caffeine double blind test—modafinil is not “stronger caffeine”, it’s completely different, by actually reducing sleepiness without any energy boost. Amphetamines are even more complicates.