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How Caffeine affects your sleep?

Updated: Aug 12, 2022

Caffeine is the most commonly used stimulant in the world. It's found in coffee, tea, energy drinks, chocolate and other foods and beverages.

beautiful cup of coffee

Caffeine can help people feel more alert and decrease fatigue. Most people know that drinking too much caffeine can make them sleep less than usual or feel jittery during the day. But did you know that caffeine also affects how well you sleep at night? In this post we'll answer some common questions about how caffeine affects sleep: What happens when I drink coffee late in the day? How long does it stay in my system? How do I know if it's affecting my sleep? What should I do if I want to reduce caffeine before bedtime?

Caffeine is the most commonly used stimulant in the world.

Caffeine is the most commonly used stimulant in the world. It’s found in coffee, tea, chocolate and energy drinks.

Caffeine is a stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It can make you feel more alert and awake.

But caffeine has some downsides too: it causes frequent urination (diuretic effect) which can lead to dehydration; it causes anxiety and sleep problems for some people; and it may be linked to heart disease if consumed too much over an extended period of time.

Caffeine stays in the body for more than six hours.

Caffeine stays in the body for more than six hours.

Caffeine affects the central nervous system, causing increased alertness and arousal. The effects of caffeine are most noticeable about 30 minutes after you've taken it — it takes this long for the drug to reach its maximum concentration in your blood — but they may last longer than six hours. Even if you don't feel tired or sleepy when drinking coffee or tea before bedtime (or even after going to bed), caffeine can still affect how well you sleep by increasing how much time it takes to fall asleep and decreasing total sleep time.



The amount of caffeine found in energy drinks can be very high.

The amount of caffeine found in energy drinks can be very high

Energy drinks can contain more caffeine than coffee, tea, chocolate and soft drinks combined.

The average energy drink contains 80 to 100 mg of caffeine per serving. The amount can be as high as 300 mg per serving!

Compare this to coffee—the average cup of brewed coffee contains 95 to 200 milligrams of caffeine, while an 8-ounce serving has between 40 and 150 milligrams. Tea also has a wide range of concentrations: black tea averages roughly 50 milligrams in a 6-ounce cup; green tea averages 25 milligrams in a 6-ounce cup; and oolong tea is about 36 milligrams per 6 ounces.

Drinking water after caffeine can help flush it out of your system faster.

Another way to reduce the amount of caffeine you consume is by drinking water. Caffeine is a diuretic and it can cause dehydration, which can lead to headaches and sleeplessness.

beautiful cup of coffee

Drinking plenty of water (about eight 8-ounce glasses each day) will help flush out the caffeine in your system so that you don't feel as groggy in the morning.


Additionally, if you know that drinking coffee after dinner tends to keep you up at night, try switching up your routine. Instead of having coffee around 5 p.m., have some tea instead—tea contains less caffeine than coffee does (and many teas are also high in antioxidants). Or simply switch from black or dark roasts over to an Americano: Americanos are made with half hot water and half steamed milk; because they're less concentrated than regular cups of joe, they'll go down easier without leaving you feeling wired into your mattress all night long!



As you can see, caffeine has a significant impact on sleep. It’s clear that it can help us feel more awake, but it also affects our ability to fall asleep at night and stay asleep throughout the night. While there are some ways to reduce how much caffeine you get from your morning cup of joe, drinking water afterwards is an easy way for everyone to avoid the negative effects of this stimulant!

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