After drinking coffee, how long can caffeine be metabolized in the body?

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At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, you are so sleepy that you can hardly open your eyes. At this point, it seems like a difficult choice whether you want to fight a tired nap or have a cup of coffee to cheer yourself up.

Let's take a brief look at how coffee keeps you awake. Coffee contains a central nervous system stimulant called caffeine. There is a chemical in our brain called adenosine that makes us sleep when we are awake. The longer we stay awake, the more adenosine we have, and caffeine is the enemy of adenylate, which reduces its sleep-inducing effect.

To put it simply, caffeine makes us feel refreshed because it prevents the body from receiving substances that make people fall asleep, so naturally you won't be sleepy.

Caffeine is a bit like a nasty party guy: as soon as the line starts, he arrives early with a bang, gets high for a few hours, and then disappears after the party excitement. For most people, the main stimulating effect of caffeine occurs about 15 to 45 minutes after drinking, because caffeine in the blood reaches its peak level, and you will feel the impact of that energy.

But it takes a long time for caffeine to be completely metabolized. The half-life of caffeine is usually about four to six hours, which means that after four to six hours of intake, about half of the caffeine is still in your body, and you may still feel some of the irritating effects of caffeine. Over time, it will take another four to six hours for the remaining half of the caffeine to be metabolized, and the side effects will gradually disappear.

If you drink a cup of coffee with 100mg of caffeine at 10:00 (about a 250ml cup of coffee), you may also have 25mg of caffeine when you lie down at 10:00 at night. If you drink another 200mg (about two cups of 250ml coffee) at 4pm, about 100mg of caffeine is still in your body at 10:00 in the evening.

Perhaps your current life experience shows that you are the kind of person who can drink coffee at any time but still sleep soundly. If so, congratulations. You don't have to make any changes. You are perfect. If you don't have trouble falling asleep and are energetic during the day, there's nothing wrong with drinking coffee later in the afternoon.

However, sleep is the foundation of health, and if your 4pm latte interferes with sleep, or if you're not sure if caffeine makes you sleepless, the first thing you need to do is stop drinking coffee.

It is generally recommended to drink the last cup of coffee at least 8 to 10 hours before going to bed, which gives two coffee half-lives. In this way, for most people, the deadline for drinking coffee every day is about 12:00 to 2 o'clock. To put it simply, don't drink coffee after lunch. If you want to take advantage of a loophole and drink all the coffee you want in the morning and early afternoon, you're thinking too much. Because it doesn't work. Increasing your caffeine intake only means that your body will later metabolize more caffeine than normal, which offsets the benefits of earlier caffeine intake.

In view of people's different reactions to caffeine, you can also explore their own rules and find out what affects their sleep is the only way. Finding the right balance often requires trial and error, and you may find that drinking coffee at 10:00 or 4pm makes no difference.

Another way to adjust your caffeine intake for better sleep is to reduce your caffeine intake. Try to drink one less drink a day and see if your sleep can improve. Or switch to decaffeinated coffee, although decaffeinated coffee still contains a small amount of caffeine.

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