LPT: Increase your afternoon energy by delaying caffeine intake.

Submitted by EvolvingMind t3_11e6brp in LifeProTips

👋 Hi there!

My friend and I write a blog where we challenge each other once a week to one self-improvement experiment. I thought this week's experiment fits well into this sub and helped me have loads more energy throughout the day.

TLDR; Delay caffeine intake by 90-120 minutes after waking up to drastically increase your energy in the afternoon.

👉 Here is how it works

  • Caffeine works by blocking the bodies ability to absorb the molecule adenosine (responsible for causing drowsiness)
  • Right when you wake up, your body is still clearing out adenosine naturally. Drinking coffee right when waking up has a low impact.
  • By delaying caffeine intake by 90-120 minutes you get a bigger positive effect from it and reduce tiredness in the afternoon.

Of course, everyone is somewhat different. However, the only way to make progress is to take action. So join this weeks experiment for 7 days and see how it impacts your energy levels. Doesn't work? Just drop it again. :)

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spoonfullofrage t1_jad5clf wrote

Copy paste from the Andrew Huberman podcast, but you do you I guess…

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EvolvingMind OP t1_jad6mlc wrote

100%! Still helpful actionable knowledge I believe.

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kyoorius t1_jacnohl wrote

I’ll take your word on the adenosine science, but coffee first thing in the morning definitely has a high impact, not a low impact.

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EvolvingMind OP t1_jacr7s3 wrote

Interestingly enough, the first coffee actually does not have that big of an impact based on what I read/heard. Here is an interesting podcast on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR_f-iwUGY4&t=545s

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kyoorius t1_jacyp0v wrote

Link not working, but no worries, no time to listen. I just find all this science on optimizing caffeine drug delivery kind of hilarious. I’ve seen the stuff on cortisol suggesting to wait an hour or two on waking. Not sure if that’s the same as the adenosine stuff. But I mean, it’s a drug. It’s interrupting naturally occurring cycles of cortisol no matter when you drink. It’s somehow more healthy to use coffee as a stop gap between cortisol cycles than as a multiplier during a cortisol cycle? I mean, come on.

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EvolvingMind OP t1_jad1gqn wrote

In the end of the day I think it's more about trying something out and to see how it subjectively impacts yourself. No point in following some routine, even if it's anchored in research, if it doesn't have any effect on you.

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Sab_accha_ho_jayga t1_jad06dy wrote

I take coffee around 12 PM. What should I do?

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EvolvingMind OP t1_jad1ll6 wrote

Assuming you don't also wake up at 12 PM, you should be golden according to this research :)

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Lithogiraffe t1_jad4ers wrote

At this point, it's sort of like the most productive way of opening a banana is actually the opposite end that everyone was raised to think it was. I know the correct way, but I'm just not going to do it.

Well this LPT makes sense, I just don't think I can delay it while watching everyone else drink coffee. That and the probably minimal, yet potently annoying hunt for coffee that is usually finished off by the afternoon by everyone else.

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keepthetips t1_jack3e4 wrote

Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!

Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment.

If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.

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rutheman4me2 t1_jad8ap1 wrote

Or stop it all together ! Ya actually have more energy with out over consuming caffeine drinks

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