How does caffeine influence your brain?
When the caffeine reaches your brain, it battles with a neurotransmitter (brain fluid) that is called adenosine. Adenosine is an essential part of your sleeping-cycle. It builds up within the brain when you are awake and this is why your brain activity reduces during the day. At the end of the day, your brain has collected enough adenosine for your brain to not function properly anymore and for you to feel sleepy. While you are sleeping, your brain will start breaking down the adenosine. If enough adenosine is broken down, you will wake up and start your day - and this cycle repeats itself. This also explains why it is better to avoid caffeine at the end of the day. After 16:00, caffeine can have a negative influence on your sleeping-cycle. Important to note though is that caffeine doesn’t stop the production of adenosine. That is why it is harmless to your sleeping-cycle to take a cup of coffee in the morning. You will keep producing a normal amount of adenosine and you will feel less of its consequences because the caffeine masks the symptoms.
Why caffeine makes you happier
Have you ever wondered why you always feel better after drinking a cup of coffee or taking a FIRST? The answer may surprise you. Caffeine emphasizes the production of the so-called “feel-good†neurotransmitter in your brain, otherwise known as dopamine. Making you feel happy and jolly is not the only thing that dopamine does. Dopamine also plays a crucial part in the emotional and mental health. It is also linked with motivation, desire, and fine motoric control.
Why is the impact of caffeine so different for everybody
Why is your buddy always able to take on endless amounts of caffeine, while you almost fly through the roof after drinking one cup of coffee? This has to do with your weight. The heavier you are, the better you can endure caffeine. It is influenced by your genetics. Genes have a crucial part in the absorption of caffeine. Everybody absorbs and breaks down a cup of coffee differently, which explains the differences amongst people in their reactions to caffeine. It is hard to give you one solid answer to this question. Caffeine-sensitivity can also vary throughout different age-groups. Caffeine-metabolisms slow down when you get older, although there are a couple of studies that say that people do not necessarily notice this change.
The cons of caffeine
If you are taking too much caffeine, it will lose a lot of the benefits. A happy mind can turn into irritableness, the focus will transform into severe shaking or shivering, and efficacy will turn into stress and anxiety. Another con is the laxative effect of coffee if you take too much. To enjoy the benefits to the fullest and to reduce the negative symptoms to their bare minimum, it is important that you take no more than 2mg to 5mg of caffeine per kilogram of bodyweight.