Why You're Not Feeling Sleepy At Night

Why You're Not Feeling Sleepy At Night

Hello Reader, the sleep protocols plan started 2 days ago but I figured I'll just let you in this. If you want the older editions, please let me know. The emails a) teach you something and b) ask you to implement it. Let's start.

Caffeine is part of our routines. It's healthy. It helps you focus. But if you ingest it at the wrong doses and time, it can keep you up at night. Here's why:

With the caffeine in the system, maybe only half of that adenosine is being communicated through the receptor to my brain. So now I think, oh, I haven't been awake for 12 hours, I've just been awake for six hours, and feel great.- Matthew Walker, episode #31

Adenosine (again!) is your sleep-hunger molecule. It tells your brain how much sleep you need. But caffeine comes in and shoves it out of the way. So, with caffeine, your brain can't sense how hungry for sleep you are. It gets tricked that you need to be awake. So, you feel alert and can't fall asleep.

Even if you fall asleep, you can't get deep rest. The caffeine stays in your system for 8-10 hours after ingesting it. So you disrupt your sleep throughout the night. You can fix this though. Just drink coffee earlier in the day. Yes, no more coffee all-nighters. Do those in the morning :)

This way adenosine can rebalance by nighttime and you can sleep well.

Action for the day

Halt your caffeine intake at 3 pm. Whether it's coffee, tea, and mate.

If this is hard, try to decrease the dose. So 1 cup instead of 2. Or if you like going to coffee shops, substitute coffee with water or a snack.

Look, it will be hard today. But this is one of the best habits you can create for the next 20 years.

Instead of relying on caffeine for energy, you get it from natural sleep.

Stop caffeine at 3pm.

You can do it Reader!

Your progress to better sleep

Day 1: Sleep in line with your 'sleep hunger'✅​
Day 2: Get morning sunlight ✅​
Day 3: Halt caffeine at 3 pm ✅
Day 4: coming tomorrow...