4 ms·

It depends on your tolerance. Caffeine has a half-life of 12 hours, so if you drink coffee at 6 PM, good luck sleeping before 6 AM. Unless you have a very high

It depends on your tolerance. Caffeine has a half-life of 12 hours, so if you drink coffee at 6 PM, good luck sleeping before 6 AM. Unless you have a very high tolerance or are in an already fatigued state.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
jjeaff 8y ago
I think there is a lot of variation in tolerance and time horizon for caffeine. I can take a 100mg caffeine supplement (I don't drink coffee) at 3pm and go to sleep easily by midnight. And this is something I do, at most, 1 time per month. In fact, I sometimes am able to go to sleep easier either due to the crash or the fact that my activity level will have been higher the rest of the afternoon and evening and I'm just exhausted by midnight.
twodave 8y ago
In my experience coffee does nothing to my ability to sleep, just allows me to focus better. I realize I’m in the minority but I literally just drank a cup and am headed to bed.
- 40four 8y ago
  Tolereance is one thing, but sensitivity is another factor to consider, I think. Tollerence is a pure function of the frequency you put a substance in your body. I'm sure my caffeine tolerance is off the charts, as I drink 4-6 cups of coffee (no sugar, sometimes cream if its crap coffee) a day. But my sensitivity is also very low. My whole life, even before coffee as a kid drinking soda, I have never felt stimulated from caffeine. I sometimes wonder if I'm immune, haha. I could literally drink a cup before bed and be fine. So why drink it you ask? Because I think it's delicious, and I belive there to be myriad other health benefits to coffee.
  - shrimpx 8y ago
    This might sound insensitive but it's possible you're not aware of the effect. For a while I also thought I was not stimulated by caffeine, but I realized I just didn't know how to recognize the effect. Edit: I would add that being high on caffeine doesn't necessarily mean I have trouble falling asleep.
    - icebraining 8y ago
      So how do you recognize it?
      - shrimpx 8y ago
        I don't know by which method to begin to recognize it. In myself I started to notice slightly more fragmented thought patterns; proneness to having more new thoughts interrupting the current line for thought.
    - 40four 8y ago
      Yeah it's possible, but I'm sure it is having some type of an effect. I don't doubt stuff is happening at the cellular/ chemical level. It is just so difficult for me to even perceive. It could be changing my conciousness more dramatically than I realize, but as far as the purely physical effects many people report (becoming jittery/ restless, trouble sleeping) they are just not there for me.
      - shrimpx 8y ago
        Do you not feel "more awake" with the ability to focus better, etc.? I find that as long as I'm focused on a task the effects of caffeine are negligible; it helps me stay focused. As soon as I go interacting with people, the effects become really visible and a hindrance. My mind is a bit too fast and fragmented for these slow and broad interactions.
  - bluntfang 8y ago
    >I sometimes wonder if I'm immune Why not find out? It would be awful if you went your whole life consuming something that didn't do what you that it was.
- cowpewter 8y ago
  Do you have ADHD? I do, and I can drink caffeine and go straight to bed, and it does help a little bit with focus (Adderall helps a lot more, of course). Stimulants tend to calm the ADHD mind, and can stop racing thoughts that make it harder to sleep.
  - twodave 8y ago
    Never been diagnosed, but I definitely suspect it. I show a lot of the classic signs, just not quite as severe as people I’ve known that were diagnosed. I started drinking coffee when I was a kid, though, so I tend to joke that I have been inadvertently treating myself for ADHD all this time :)
    - cowpewter 8y ago
      You should go get screened! I just finally got diagnosed at age 38, and it's shed so much insight into my life. Plus, medication can really make a real difference.
bradleyjg 8y ago
I think it’s more like half that. So 100 mg of caffeine (one cup of coffee more or less) at 6PM is the equivalent of 50 mg (two cups of black tea) at midnight. A coffee at lunch (100mg @ noon) is 50 mg by six and 25mg by midnight. Still not great, but a 12 hour half life would likely mean no one would start drinking coffee because you’d never be able to sleep while building up a tolerance.
- pqhwan 8y ago
  I thought that’s what college was for — a once-in-life-time 4 year contiguous block of time for building caffeine tolerances.
barrkel 8y ago
I can wake up, drink a can of red bull (10 years ago for reference), and go right back to sleep for another 4 hours, no problem. I haven't noticed a strong correlation between coffee / caffeine and sleepiness. I have however found a really strong correlation between eating and sleepiness. If I don't eat by 8pm, I'm almost unconscious by 9pm. If I sleep then, I'll sleep until 2 then have a hard time sleeping again until 6 or so. Whereas if I eat by 8pm, I'm awake until 2am or thereabouts.
- walljm 8y ago
  you can build a tolerance to caffeine, if ingested regularly. you would need to exceed your regular dosage to measure an effect.
antisthenes 8y ago
Caffeine has a half-life of 6 hours.
- walljm 8y ago
  yup: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

jjeaff 8y ago

I think there is a lot of variation in tolerance and time horizon for caffeine. I can take a 100mg caffeine supplement (I don't drink coffee) at 3pm and go to sleep easily by midnight. And this is something I do, at most, 1 time per month. In fact, I sometimes am able to go to sleep easier either due to the crash or the fact that my activity level will have been higher the rest of the afternoon and evening and I'm just exhausted by midnight.

twodave 8y ago

In my experience coffee does nothing to my ability to sleep, just allows me to focus better. I realize I’m in the minority but I literally just drank a cup and am headed to bed.

40four 8y ago
Tolereance is one thing, but sensitivity is another factor to consider, I think. Tollerence is a pure function of the frequency you put a substance in your body. I'm sure my caffeine tolerance is off the charts, as I drink 4-6 cups of coffee (no sugar, sometimes cream if its crap coffee) a day. But my sensitivity is also very low. My whole life, even before coffee as a kid drinking soda, I have never felt stimulated from caffeine. I sometimes wonder if I'm immune, haha. I could literally drink a cup before bed and be fine. So why drink it you ask? Because I think it's delicious, and I belive there to be myriad other health benefits to coffee.
- shrimpx 8y ago
  This might sound insensitive but it's possible you're not aware of the effect. For a while I also thought I was not stimulated by caffeine, but I realized I just didn't know how to recognize the effect. Edit: I would add that being high on caffeine doesn't necessarily mean I have trouble falling asleep.
  - icebraining 8y ago
    So how do you recognize it?
    - shrimpx 8y ago
      I don't know by which method to begin to recognize it. In myself I started to notice slightly more fragmented thought patterns; proneness to having more new thoughts interrupting the current line for thought.
  - 40four 8y ago
    Yeah it's possible, but I'm sure it is having some type of an effect. I don't doubt stuff is happening at the cellular/ chemical level. It is just so difficult for me to even perceive. It could be changing my conciousness more dramatically than I realize, but as far as the purely physical effects many people report (becoming jittery/ restless, trouble sleeping) they are just not there for me.
    - shrimpx 8y ago
      Do you not feel "more awake" with the ability to focus better, etc.? I find that as long as I'm focused on a task the effects of caffeine are negligible; it helps me stay focused. As soon as I go interacting with people, the effects become really visible and a hindrance. My mind is a bit too fast and fragmented for these slow and broad interactions.
- bluntfang 8y ago
  >I sometimes wonder if I'm immune Why not find out? It would be awful if you went your whole life consuming something that didn't do what you that it was.
cowpewter 8y ago
Do you have ADHD? I do, and I can drink caffeine and go straight to bed, and it does help a little bit with focus (Adderall helps a lot more, of course). Stimulants tend to calm the ADHD mind, and can stop racing thoughts that make it harder to sleep.
- twodave 8y ago
  Never been diagnosed, but I definitely suspect it. I show a lot of the classic signs, just not quite as severe as people I’ve known that were diagnosed. I started drinking coffee when I was a kid, though, so I tend to joke that I have been inadvertently treating myself for ADHD all this time :)
  - cowpewter 8y ago
    You should go get screened! I just finally got diagnosed at age 38, and it's shed so much insight into my life. Plus, medication can really make a real difference.

bradleyjg 8y ago

I think it’s more like half that. So 100 mg of caffeine (one cup of coffee more or less) at 6PM is the equivalent of 50 mg (two cups of black tea) at midnight. A coffee at lunch (100mg @ noon) is 50 mg by six and 25mg by midnight. Still not great, but a 12 hour half life would likely mean no one would start drinking coffee because you’d never be able to sleep while building up a tolerance.

pqhwan 8y ago
I thought that’s what college was for — a once-in-life-time 4 year contiguous block of time for building caffeine tolerances.

barrkel 8y ago

I can wake up, drink a can of red bull (10 years ago for reference), and go right back to sleep for another 4 hours, no problem. I haven't noticed a strong correlation between coffee / caffeine and sleepiness. I have however found a really strong correlation between eating and sleepiness. If I don't eat by 8pm, I'm almost unconscious by 9pm. If I sleep then, I'll sleep until 2 then have a hard time sleeping again until 6 or so. Whereas if I eat by 8pm, I'm awake until 2am or thereabouts.

walljm 8y ago
you can build a tolerance to caffeine, if ingested regularly. you would need to exceed your regular dosage to measure an effect.

antisthenes 8y ago

Caffeine has a half-life of 6 hours.

walljm 8y ago
yup: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/