Caffeine Keeps Your Brain "Awake" Even While You Sleep, Study Finds | Hacker News Reader

Caffeine Keeps Your Brain "Awake" Even While You Sleep, Study Finds

scitechdaily.com

26 pointssys425909 comments

Discussion on the paper (57 points, 9 days ago, 47 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44131411

“They compared each participant’s brain activity on two separate nights — one when they consumed caffeine capsules three hours and then one hour before bedtime, and another when they took a placebo at the same times.”

As someone who consumes lots of coffee I worry a little about that and always read caffeine articles but in this case doesn’t everyone already know caffeine right before bed is a bad idea?

Caffeine has a long half life. Some experts recommend you stop by 11am. Not everyone knows that

Shouldn't the recommendation depend on when you go to sleep, rather than a blanket recommendation for a specific time?

Are you saying not everyone wakes up at 5 AM and goes out for a run straight out of bed? /s

Sorry for the sass, but it's so tiring to have one's circadian clock ignored all the time - or worse, met with tips and techniques on how to "fix" it.

I wonder if there’s a tolerance that builds over time which would also lead to the middle aged / older cohort being less affected than the younger one.

Not really. Caffeine tolerance builds over a period of days and dissipates over a similar period, roughly 72 hours. The article actually touches on the effect, and it has to do with a reduction of adenosine receptors in middle-aged participants.

> “Adenosine receptors naturally decrease with age, reducing caffeine’s ability to block them and improve brain complexity, which may partly explain the reduced effect of caffeine observed in middle-aged participants,” Carrier said.

But, old people, who have taken coffee have good mental health, contrary to alcohol drinkers.

So I can dream faster!

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