Why Is It so Hard to Go a Day Without Coffee?

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world. We all know that drinking coffee keeps you awake. The main ingredient in coffee is caffeine. Some statistics say that more than 100,000 tons of caffeine are consumed all over the world every year, which is equivalent to the sum of 14 Eiffel Towers, which is very astonishing. This shows how much people really rely on coffee.

So why does drinking coffee keep you awake? It also starts with our brains. It turns out that our bodies produce a metabolic waste product called adenosine when we consume energy. As more and more energy is consumed each day, more and more adenosine accumulates.

At this time, our brain will detect these adenosine, and respond, tell our body, you consume enough energy today, it is time to sleep. As a result, we start to get sleepy and want to rest.

Interestingly, the caffeine in coffee is chemically similar in structure to adenosine. Therefore, the original “detector” in our brain used to detect adenosine, when it detects caffeine, the attention will be attracted to all, but ignore the body because of fatigue and the accumulation of the “genuine” adenosine. In other words, caffeine can make these “detectors” “malfunction”, so that the brain ignores the body’s fatigue and continues to work. That’s why many people stay awake after drinking coffee.

However, drinking coffee should also be careful about the time. Some people don’t usually drink much coffee and must wait until they are too tired to do so. At this time, the effect of coffee is greatly reduced. Why? As we said earlier, there is a “detector” in the brain that detects adenosine, a metabolic waste product. When you are already feeling very tired, the brain “detector” has been busy, there is no time to pay attention to the caffeine, caffeine is also ineffective. Therefore, it is best to drink coffee before you feel tired.

However, the human brain is still very smart and will not be fooled by caffeine forever. Drinking too much coffee makes you feel awake, but it’s only an illusory surface phenomenon. In reality, our body still consumes a lot of energy and produces a lot of adenosine, which can still make our body feel uncomfortable.

So our brain will think, is this batch of “detectors” failed? So, the brain will produce more new “detectors” to look for metabolic waste adenosine, which means that if you still want to force the brain to remain awake, you need more caffeine. Otherwise, even if you drink coffee, you will still be sleepy. This is why, many people drink more and more coffee. And, when they can’t drink coffee occasionally, they still feel especially hard. This is because there are so many “detectors” in the brain telling the body: you are too tired and should rest earlier. That’s why when they can’t drink coffee, they have headaches and depression.

But don’t worry too much. If you can’t drink coffee, it will only take a few days for the level of the “detector” in your brain to drop back to normal. From this point of view, the human body’s self-regulation ability is still quite strong.

Finally, it’s also important to remember that while coffee promotes brain wakefulness, it’s not recommended for children under the age of 12. Adolescents between the ages of 12-18 should not consume more than 100 milligrams of caffeine per day, which is roughly the same amount as a cup of coffee. It’s better to wait until you’re older to experience the effects of coffee.