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Imagine you stay up late studying for a huge test you have the next day.You wake up early the day of the test and you are so tired. What do you do to make sure you can stay awake and do well on the test? You go to the local store and either purchase coffee or some kind of energy drink. These drinks help you stay awake because they have a chemical called caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant that promotes mental alertness. (Whiteman, 2015).
The thing that a lot of people might not think about is the negative effects that caffeine can have on your body. When caffeine is consumed it raises chemicals in the body such as dopamine and serotonin.(Gunners, 2012). This is bad because when it raises those chemicals it can cause one to become nervous and easily agitated . Another known side effect is when a person consumes caffeine it unnaturally speeds up their heart rate, causing things like chest pains and in extreme cases even heart attacks (Eichner, 2016).
Although there are many bad side effects from the consumption of caffeine the worst one is the effects it has on sleep. Since caffeine speeds up a persons heart rate it counteracts what our body usually does when we get ready to go to sleep. When a person consumes a caffeinated beverage in under 2 hours of trying to sleep in can reduce the quality of their sleep by 48% (Lohsoonthorn, 2013). Caffeine also effects our sleep pattern because is decreases the amount of melatonin in the body. When our body's biological clock says it is time to sleep a large dose of meletonin is released causing the body to get drowsy (Sheer 2005).
Although caffeine and the effects it has on sleep are well known now, they used to not even be noticed. Back when caffeine was first introduced for helping people get through their busy days at work or school people had no idea that there were any bad side effects to it. Many scientists did not believe that something like caffeine could be only good and not have any bad side effects along with it. The first scientist to find out the negative effects that caffeine has on the body was Friedlieb Runge. Freidlieb Runge discovered after years of studies that there are many negative side effects of caffeine. The side effects include restlessness, increased heart rate, loss of sleep, chest pains, irritable bowel syndrome and high blood pressure along with chemical imbalances in the brain (Web MD, 2013).
Why is getting enough sleep so important to our bodies?
Why is getting enough sleep so important to our bodies?
So now that we've talked about how caffeine effects one's sleep let's talk about how important getting enough sleep is for our bodies. Depending on how old you are you are recommended to get a certain amount of sleep each night. Children 8 years and younger should get 10 -12 hours of sleep each night, Young adults ages 18-25 should get 7-9 hours of sleep each night, and adults ages 65 and older should get 7-8 hours of sleep a night (Lichtenstein, 2015). Sleep is so important because it plays a key role in our overall health throughout our whole life. When we are asleep our body is repairing itself and fighting of diseases. In children and teens when the body is asleep it also uses that time to grow and develop the body.
Why is lack of sleep bad for our bodies?
Why is lack of sleep bad for our bodies?
When people hear that caffeine can cause things like lack of sleep most people are not to concerned because they think "so what I will just be tired the next day". What they don't notice is that lack of sleep does a lot more to your body than just making you tired. Studies have shown that when people lose sleep for more than 3 days in a row it can result in difficulty paying attention, reduced academic performance, agitation and difficulty preforming everyday tasks .(Killgore, 2010). Lack of sleep doesn't only effect our cognitive ability, researchers have found that it effects or physical ability just as much. When a person is suffering from sleep deprivation they are at a higher risk of obesity, kidney disease, heart disease and even strokes. In extreme cases some people have even reported having suicidal thoughts or actions when they were sleep deprived.
Why does caffeine cause each side effect?
Why does caffeine cause each side effect?
Although a lot of the effects I named above are related to lack of sleep, that is not the prime factor of causing them. They all lead back to the consumption of caffeine. That means that even if you got the recommended amount of sleep for your age you would still very likely experience these side effects. The reason I connected them to sleep is because all of the side effects just have a worse effect on your body when you don't get enough sleep for a few days. So, now that you know some of the most common side effects people suffer from when they consume caffeine let's talk about why caffeine causes each one. Caffeine causes so many different side effects because caffeine causes different things depending on where it is in the body. First lets talk about why people are at a higher risk of obesity when they are sleep deprived. Getting a healthy amount of sleep helps maintain a healthy amount of the hormone that makes you feel hungry (ghrelin) and the hormone that makes you feel full (leptin). When people don't get enough sleep their body starts to produce more ghrelin causing them to feel hungry more often which means they eat a lot more causing them to gain weight. Secondly let's talk about high blood pressure and strokes. When you body is tired and it starts to produce more ghrelin and one gains weight because they are always hungry their heart has to work harder because they are not as in shape anymore. When your heart has to work harder a persons blood pressure spikes. Lastly, sleep deprivation can cause suicidal thoughts and actions because when we sleep our body recharges and our mind is resting. When our mind doesn't get enough time to rest we have a hard time making easy decsions and thing clearly. Since we have a hard time thinking clearly we tend to have odd and abnormal thoughts that sometimes lead to us acting in ways that we would normally not.
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