Mentioned in: _ Why we sleep
Tags: Health

Caffeine blocks adenosine

Adenosine forces us to sleep, but it is possible to block its effect by using caffeine. Caffeine occupies the receptors and prevents adenosine from working making us feel not sleepy.

Caffeine has an average half-life of five to seven hours.

While we are "under caffeine" the adenosine effect is blocked but adenosine is still developing. So when caffeine stops working we feel very sleepy and tired because of extra adenosine.