By delaying his caffeine 90 minutes to 2 hours after waking, Huberman wards off a late afternoon, or even early afternoon, crash after the caffeine wears off. "However, caffeine is an adenosine blocker-actually a competitive antagonist, meaning it binds to the same receptors that adenosine does." That’s why you feel more alert after your cup of joe (and after your coffee nap), because the caffeine is essentially blocking the adenosine from adhering to its normal receptors. "The buildup of adenosine accumulates the longer we’re awake, so early morning your adenosine levels are likely to be very low. “The reason I delay caffeine is that one of the factors that induces a sense of sleepiness is the build-up of adenosine in our system,” he said.
Plus, by doubling down on stimulants (cortisol and caffeine) you may build up a tolerance over time, which means more coffee to get the same pick-me-up.Īndrew Huberman, neuroscientist and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, takes it a step further, waiting 90 to 120 minutes ( 2 hours?!!) for his first cup of coffee, even though he’s “thinking about and fantasizing about and craving caffeine” the moment he wakes up. But if you wait an hour or two for your coffee, the caffeine will kick in as your cortisol levels begin to decline, just when you could use it the most.Īnother way to look at it is, if you drink coffee or tea or other caffeinated beverage during your peak cortisol production phase, the caffeine will be less effective. If you’re caffeinating while your cortisol levels are still elevated (i.e., when you first wake up) you’re introducing caffeine into your system when you could do without it, and it can disrupt your cortisol’s natural flow. The release of cortisol is timed to our sleep wake cycle, with levels that peak around 45 minutes after we wake up, then drop rapidly for the next few hours and slowly decline throughout the rest of the day. Our circadian rhythm is our internal body clock that helps regulate our sleep wake cycle, including the morning release of cortisol and epinephrine, hormones that enhance alertness and focus. What do rhythms and hormones have to do with it?
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