New studies are showing surprising ways that caffeine and sleeping affect the brain.
According to new findings, consuming caffeine can make our brains more active during sleep and nudge them into working at a high performance state throughout the following day. This research adds a new angle to how It’s acts on our brains — not only when considering our waking hours but also when we’re asleep.
What Caffeine Really Does to the Sleep Parts of the Brain
Many people link caffeine to greater wakefulness, more energy and sharper focus during the day. Now, newly presented studies from a neuroscience journal state that It’s also helps your brain by improving information processing while you sleep.
People who took caffeine showed a greater level of brain signal organization during non-REM sleep. That the brain is more intricate reveals it may give us higher awareness and more ability to cope, even while we rest.
What Does Brain Complexity Refer To and Why Should We Care?
Brain complexity means how well and smoothly different parts of the brain interact and cooperate. Brain exercises with higher complexity enhance your thinking, creativity, emotional control and your ability to handle stress.
When a more developed brain is sleeping, memory recall, healthy brain links and strong mental ability may take place. They suggest that having a moderate amount of It’s can improve your alertness during the day and your brain health while sleeping.
Is the brain’s critical state its optimal way to function?
An exciting finding here is that It’s can activate brain parts used during a critical state while a person sleeps. At a critical state, the brain is working at its highest efficiency, because order and chaos are perfectly balanced. At this point, the brain is just the right amount of active and responds normally. The human brain is flexible, quick to learn and able to respond appropriately to events happening within or outside the body.
Details of the Study
Psychologists monitored the participant’s brain activity with modern neuroimaging and EEG machines when they were asleep. People were divided into two groups, with one group getting caffeine before bed and the other getting a placebo.
Although It’s was thought to cause sleeping difficulties, the study found it didn’t disrupt sleep any more than normal. More signal complexity was seen in the caffeine group, particularly while they were in non-REM sleep. It appears the brain was more actively involved during sleep, even when the body was not moving.
Is Drinking Caffeine Before Sleep a Good Idea?
While the findings here encourage coffee, you shouldn’t try to drink it immediately before going to bed. People’s sleep quality and abilities to withstand discomfort can be very different. Researchers now see potential for using caffeine in therapies for cognitive problems and sleep issues, mainly in people with neuro degenerative diseases, sleep disturbances or age-related memory decline.
How Caffeine Could Help the Brain
- Increases Neural Network Activity: Improves brain function when you are doing nothing as well
- Eases the Processing of Sleep-State Memories: May Help Store Information for Longer
- The body responds and the brain can reorganize because of storied eye movements
- It Could Help Reduce Age-Related Brain Changes and Dementia: Research suggests it slows brain aging.
- Improves mental thinking and brain energy as soon as you wake up
- Warning: Not Every Reaction Is the Same
There really is such a thing as being sensitive to caffeine. Avoid drinking caffeine late in the day if you have insomnia, anxiety or high blood pressure. In addition, too much consumption may cause your adrenal glands to burn out, prevent good sleep and shorten your time in REM sleep.
It’s best to watch your caffeine intake — doctors usually say most adults should not exceed 200 to 400 mg per day.
How This May Affect Patients’ Brain Health
The research highlights the need for experts to reconsider ways to improve cognitive function, mental toughness and brain health through what we eat and how we live.
Coffee, once believed to merely keep one active in the day, might unexpectedly help with regenerating brain cells even when you are sleeping.
