Why does a small amount of caffeine sometimes make you want to nap and actually make your sleep more refreshing?
from cheese_greater@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca on 10 Nov 2024 16:09
https://lemmy.world/post/21863842
from cheese_greater@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca on 10 Nov 2024 16:09
https://lemmy.world/post/21863842
Pure conjectural or anecdotal but it is my intuition that there is something to it
EDIT: My running theory is related to hormesis or tolerance where the body produces an opposite effect to the ligand to maintain homeostasis and there is not a sufficient dose of the exogenous drug taken to override the body’s compensatory reaction
So even tho caffeine is a stimulant (adenosine antagonist) it actually causes the body to produce the opposite reaction, causing the reverse effect of making you sleepy
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IIRC it takes about 30ish minutes for caffeine to “kick in”. So if you have a bit, then take a nap, it can give you a nice 20ish minute power nap, then naturally wake you up so you don’t feel groggy. The key is to be able to fall asleep quickly enough to have a decent power nap before it kicks in.
This restonates ;)
Also, wild and vivid dreams.
Yup. I used to be able to chug a monster and go to bed. Then I got medicated and I can’t do that anymore lol.
Can confirm. The first line of speed gets me relaxed.
My son is ADHD and autistic and caffeine calms him down. Sometimes when he misses his meds we will give him some coffee or soda to get him through to his next dose.
This is purely personal experience, but I’ve found that the usually warm beverage that caffeine comes in + the increased heart rate helps to warm up my muscles, which makes the muscles relax more easily.
Checks out. Like a warm bath before bed
I feel like there’s different sorts of ‘tired’, and caffeine only interacts with one of them. I’ve had some crazy dreams from caffeine naps
Can you described some of these, intrigued
There’s exhaustion, which builds up and is relieved gradually with sleep, and is effectively masked by caffeine. Then there’s the feeling of incomplete/interrupted sleep; maybe the quality of sleep was poor somehow, maybe you were woken up by an alarm in the middle of a sleep cycle, but it’s painful, cognitively debilitating, and sticks around like a splinter in your brain. Caffeine doesn’t help it at all, but it can be completely relieved by a nap in which you succeed in falling completely asleep even just for a few minutes, which caffeine does not prevent from happening.
I don’t know how much of that is objectively how it works for everyone, but that’s how I understand it.
Oh. Easy.
Biphasic dose response.
www.sciencedirect.com/…/S0269749113004235
Also known as hormesis.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormesis
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/aec56aa0-e2d3-4ab9-98df-d8a8393ad3b3.jpeg">
Small/normal doses of cannabis can perk you up. Large ones sedate. Reasonable doses of alcohol give party energy. Larger ones make you go to bed.
Same with caffeine.
And everything, really.
Very cool, I’ll be spending more time meditating on this answer later :)