Caffeine can be found in Coffee, Tea, Green Tea, Chocolate, Energy Drinks, Protein Bars, Supplements, and even some painkillers, amongst other things.

The immediate effects of consuming caffeine are being more alert – which is great if you need to study or produce work. As well as a rise in body temperature, faster breathing and heart rate – also great if you’re about to engage in physical activity or exercise. Increased blood pressure and production of stomach acid – once you’ve digested a meal, not quite so good for the health.

The long-term effects include bone loss (due to the prevention of calcium absorption), cardiovascular problems (from the increased heart rate and blood pressure), heartburn and ulcers (from the stomach acid), confusion (from mental over-stimulation), anxiety and depression, and difficulty sleeping – which we will come onto.

You can already get an idea of the stress that caffeine is putting your body under. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s all bad – used in moderation at the right time for the right reason, caffeine can be helpful.

Caffeine is an addictive substance, so please be aware if you choose to lessen or remove caffeine intake, there might be withdrawal symptoms for a while until you get used to going without.

Many of us don’t think twice about how what we consume will affect our sleep though. Sleep is a vital part of our routine and is essential to our health - we need good quantity and good quality sleep.

Having established the immediate effects are above, it wouldn’t be a good idea to have a large coffee right before going to bed – for sleep we need a cooler body temperature, slow controlled breath and heart rate, and a relaxed mind and body – all the complete opposites to the reactions caused by caffeine. Therefore, by consuming caffeine less than 2 hours before bed, it may take you a lot longer to fall asleep, reducing your total sleep time, and cause fractured or disturbed sleep during the night, hence reducing the quality too.

Regarding the long-term effects, people struggle to get good sleep when suffering from pain, so heartburn and ulcers are not helping here. The over-stimulation of the brain can lead to your monkey mind keeping you awake (see my blog post on the monkey mind here), along with anxiety and depression. The stressful effects of caffeine on the body are now putting stress on your sleep – and stress in any form is another factor that keeps you awake and ruins the quality of any actual sleep you do get.

So how much of a problem is caffeine actually causing to our sleep? Well, caffeine has a half-life of 3-6 hours. This means that if you consume some caffeine, 3-6 hours later, there is still half the original amount of caffeine you consumed still active in your body. Another 3-6 hours later, half this again, which means there is still a quarter of the original amount still present in and effecting the body. 3-6 hour later again, an eighth of the amount, and so on. We are all unique individuals, so depending on how much you consumed, and how your body breaks down, absorbs and makes use of the caffeine, will depend on how quickly the half-life decreases.

Caffeine blocks the effect of adenosine on the brain. Adenosine is the chemical responsible for building up sleep pressure during the day so that you feel tired by bedtime. If adenosine is blocked from the brain, the sleep pressure doesn’t build up and you don’t feely sleepy when you should. This means it takes you longer to fall asleep, and therefore you get less amount of sleep and quite probably still poorer quality from the other effects of the caffeine. The result will be that you feel tired the next morning, and if this routine carries on could lead to all sorts of health problems, not only daytime sleepiness.

Ideally, if you want to consume caffeine, do it earlier in the day, and try not to take on any more after midday. This gives your mind and body a chance to get rid of it before bedtime and sleep.

With improved sleep due to stopping the later intake of caffeine, you may even find that you no longer need that large coffee in the morning to wake you up and stop you feeling so groggy.

Do you really need caffeine though? What about if you did something else to replace it?

Here are some suggestions of things you might try to replace caffeine:

Meditate: Meditation can sometimes help to kick bad habits. You can train your mind and control your thoughts. Over time you become mentally stronger, more positive and happier with life. You may not need to resort to consuming large amounts of caffeine to get the lift you are missing.

Breathing: Certain breathing techniques can help balance your nervous system. You can breathe to feel more alert, energised and focused, also to reduce stress and anxiety levels. Take a few minutes to breathe rather than reach for the caffeine. The ‘breath of fire’ exercise in Yoga Breathing has a very similar effect – which is why it’s classed as a ‘coffee’ category exercise.

(Learn more about Meditation or Yoga Breath on my website, or a book a free discovery session)

Exercise: Exercising produces the same happy effect chemical / endorphins in the body as eating chocolate or drinking coffee. Replacing your bad eating and drinking habits with a good workout will keep you alert, focused, improve your mood, make you fitter, and boost your health in general.

Healthy Snack: Replace your chocolate and soda drinks with fruit and/or vegetables. The natural sugars in fruit give you just as good a boost, and vegetables contain many vitamins and minerals that will, if continually consumed over time provide the body and mind with equal benefits.

Stretch: Take a 5 minute break to stretch – this boosts your circulation, wakes up your body, clears your mind, and removes stiffness and pain. You will feel refreshed and ready to be more productive.

Fresh Air: Grab some water instead of a coffee or tea, and take 5 minutes outside in the fresh air – it will clear your head and wake you up. Take some deep breaths – get the lungs working. It can be very refreshing and you will come back more focused and happier.

Early Light: Expose yourself to early natural daytime light outside. This will set you up for the day with more energy, alertness and a good mood. It will also help with building sleep pressure at the right time so that you become tired for bedtime.

Power Nap: If you’re feeling really tired, it would be better to stop fighting it and losing precious time struggling against it, and take a quick power nap. A much healthier solution to pumping yourself full of caffeine and its effects. Just remember to set your alarm for 10-15 minutes.