Why do some people fall asleep after drinking coffee?

[James]

One role of the adrenals is to maintain our energy levels.

When people abuse caffeine to increase their energy they are actually doing the opposite in a way. Regular use of stimulants, such as caffeine, can weaken the adrenal glands. As people weaken their adrenals they actually become more dependent on the caffeine to try and get their energy up. If they crash their adrenals enough then the caffeine does not really provide a stimulatory effect anymore.

You may have heard people say that they can drink a cup of coffee and go right to sleep. These are the people who have crashed their adrenals.

The adrenals produce small amounts of epinephrine (adrenaline) in part to help maintain energy levels. The adrenals can only produce small amounts of epinephrine at a time though. When a person uses caffeine on a regular basis they use up the epinephrine faster than it can be produced. This leads to a gradual decline of epinephrine. If this goes on long enough and frequently enough then the person can drink a cup of coffee, which results in most of the available epinephrine being used up so there is not enough to maintain their energy. Therefore, the person falls asleep after drinking the coffee.

[Anderson]

So if coffee makes you stay awake, that's a good sign, isn't it?
The adrenals are still working.

If I take coffee at 3 o'clock in the afternoon I'll probably have a hard time trying to sleep around 10pm.

[James]

(07-26-2012 04:04 AM)Anderson Wrote:  So if coffee makes you stay awake, that's a good sign, isn't it?
The adrenals are still working.

"Good" sign? Depends on how you wish to view that. To me that is like a smoker saying its a good sign that they are not on oxygen yet showing they have not developed chronic bronchitis or emphysema.

But yes, that would indicate that the adrenals have not crashed.

If I take coffee at 3 o'clock in the afternoon I'll probably have a hard time trying to sleep around 10pm.

If people really want to maintain their energy levels then they should focus on building up their adrenals allowing the body to maintain its energy naturally.