How long is the "Cup of Joe" hanging around?

Have you ever tried to give up Caffeine? I have on a handful of occasions and it was not pretty. I was irritable, I had crazy aches in my legs and a headache like no other. These all went away instantly when I gave in to my symptoms and had some caffeine. I know this because I mistakenly took Excedrin to relief my headache… I’ve also tested this out a few other times just to see.

Throughout the day, our body’s produce adenosine which causes drowsiness or sleepiness. The longer you are awake the more buildup of adenosine you will have. After about 16 hours of being awake you should start to feel sleepy due to this.

Caffeine is a psychoactive stimulant which hijacks and blocks the adenosine receptors. Caffeine will trick the brain into thinking it has not been awake as long as it thinks it has. It prevents the drowsiness to set in.

Duration of Caffeine in the body-

Half life- is defined as the time required for half of something to undergo a process. In the case of caffeine, this would refer to how long it takes to remove half of the stimulant from your system. Caffeine has a half life of about 6 hours.

Caffeine has a Quarter life of 12 hours. If you have a cup of coffee around noon, 1/4 of that caffeine is still in your system around midnight.

Individuals tolerate caffeine differently which is why some people can have more than others.

This just got me thinking about my coffee intake. I LOVE coffee and probably drink too much. Just recently, I have started to want a cup in the afternoon. I think this is more of a warm comfort craving than a need for caffeine. I think I will try to switch to decaf for this (which was my original intention). How much caffeine are you having?

Source: Trained a Podcast by Nike. The secret to improve Your Metabolism, Reaction Time and Longevity Season 2, Episode 5 - Dr. Mathew Walker.

https://www.sleepscore.com/learn-about-adenosine/