Why Does Coffee Make Me Sleepy?

October 19, 2022

Has this ever happened to you? You’re feeling sluggish after lunch and you decide that it’s time for a midday pick-me-up. So you grab a vanilla latte to help get you through the day and the first 15 minutes are exactly what you’d hoped for…a wonderful refreshing treat that helps you feel alert. But then, disaster strikes. 30 minutes later you’re blindsided by a horrible fatigue that’s even worse than your initial lethargy.

If that scenario sounds familiar — you’re not alone.

Every coffee drinker has had some version of that same experience. We know coffee has the ability to give us a boost, but sometimes it seems like the caffeine in our cup of coffee just isn’t enough to get the job done. And why is it that the days when we really need that boost are the days when we crash the hardest? Basically, why does caffeine make me tired at all?

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the caffeine in coffee making you sleepy.

Before we dive into some of the potential reasons behind the bigger question of why coffee makes you sleepy, let’s first dive into some of the more biological effects caffeine has on the body.

In layman's terms, caffeine is a stimulant. That means that consuming caffeine puts your body into a state of overdrive by stimulating the nervous system. According to the National Library Of Medicine, the hyper-active feeling we get after consuming a caffeinated beverage is the result of the caffeine blocking a molecule called Adenosine. When you drink caffeine your body blocks Adenosine leaving you feeling alert and focused.

So if it’s supposed to help block the Adenosine, why does coffee make me sleepy? Great question! When you drink caffeine, your brain blocks out Adenosine allowing your body to operate under the assumption that it isn’t tired. The only problem is, once the caffeine wears off, that Adenosine that was previously being blocked gets through all at once creating a wave of fatigue that is bigger and stronger because it all hits you at once.

Adenosine molecule illustration

Can Caffeine Make You Tired For Other Reasons?

Yes!

It isn’t just the relationship between Adenosine and caffeine that causes a crash, there are other contributing biological factors as well. For starters, everyone is affected by caffeine differently. While the normal half-life of caffeine is about 6 hours, some people experience the effects of caffeine for up to 10 hours, whereas others only experience the effects for 4 hours. It’s a sliding scale and your personal biological makeup determines a lot regarding how caffeine affects you.

Additionally, you may be jaded to the effects of caffeine due to overuse. According to an article from Queensland Health, regular caffeine drinkers are more likely to experience less of a boost and more of a crash due to the body creating a tolerance to caffeine over time.

Why Doesn’t Caffeine Give Me Energy?

According to Better Health, the normal effects of caffeine typically include a feeling of renewed alertness, and a heightened sense of focus. However, Better Health also reveals that caffeine can also lead to restlessness, anxiety, and lack of sleep, all of which can contribute to greater fatigue the next day.

If you are experiencing a lack of energy when you drink your coffee, it could be due to an over-consumption.

The other possibility for why caffeine isn’t giving you energy is that you don’t have the proper dietary base to allow the caffeine to be most effective.

The two most common reasons for why coffee makes you sleepy are:

1) Your coffee has too much sugar

2) You aren’t consuming enough protein

As you probably could have guessed, added sugar is one of the leading contributors to crashing after a cup of coffee; especially in the afternoon!

Coffee with lots of added sugar is just like drinking an energy drink. You’re going to feel a jittery boost because of the caffeine/sugar combo, but as soon as the initial buzz wears off you’re going to face a very real crash.

Drinking caffeine and sugar together is like using lighter fluid. It catches fire quickly, and it burns hot and bright, but without any substance underneath it’s going to burn out quickly.

So how do you combat a caffeine crash? Simple, you drink BuzzFit.

BuzzFit doesn’t have any added sugar, which means that the sugar crash you experience drinking other caffeinated beverages doesn't happen with BuzzFit.

Girl drinking To-go coffee

But What About A Regular Caffeine Crash?

For those of you wondering why you still get a caffeine crash from a regular cup of coffee with no added sugar, we would like to direct your attention back to the lighter fluid metaphor.

Drinking caffeine with nothing else in your system is a recipe for disaster…just like using lighter fluid without any sort of charcoal or other appropriate burning agent.

So while it’s true that even a cup of regular black coffee with no added sugar can still give you an unexpected crash, in that scenario it’s due to the lack of usable energy in your body.

That’s why BuzzFit contains 10g of protein in every serving!

With BuzzFit, your body not only gets a boost from the caffeine, it can use that caffeine boost to then burn the 10g of protein for a longer burn that doesn’t burn you out. Now, you can get the buzz you need and ditch the crash you hate.

Girl pouring BuzzFit into a shaker cup

A Better Buzz Without The Crash

BuzzFit has zero sugar and 10g of protein which means that with BuzzFit you can have all of the buzz without the crash. Plus, BuzzFit is easy to make and crazy delicious, so no more googling “how to make instant coffee taste better!”

Not only does our zero added sugar recipe ensure that you don’t make matters worse with a sugar crash, our 10g of added protein ensures that your body has plenty of fuel to burn after the caffeine gives you a boost!

Stop worrying about whether the cup of coffee you drink in the morning is going to get you through the day, or help you past that mid afternoon hump. Try a coffee sample of BuzzFit today, and see why our instant coffee with protein is the best way to get the buzz you love without the crash you dread.