Caffeine Interferes With Many Natural Cycles

Caffeine creates many effects to our body's natural cycles. One of the main effects that it has on the human body is sleep cycles. Caffeine interferes with our melatonin rhythms meaning that it can delay sleep schedules and can confuse our sleep to waking up cycle. A study suggests that "400 mg of caffeine taken 0, 3, or even 6 hours prior to bedtime significantly disrupts sleep. Even at 6 hours, caffeine reduced sleep by more than 1 hour. This degree of sleep loss, if experienced over multiple nights, may have detrimental effects on daytime function" (NCBI - WWW Error Blocked Diagnostic, n.d.).

Another natural aspect to our body is the hippocampus. This plays an important role in learning and memory. The hippocampus is mainly associated with long-term memory. It helps process two types of memory, declarative memories and spatial relationships. Caffeine
helps enhance short term memory and makes it easier for the brain to remember information. Although it has an impact on short term memory, it does not effect long term memory.

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Introduction

Caffeine has made a huge impact on society. It is one of the most necessary parts of a person's day and most cannot go throughout their day without it. Caffeine has become an addiction to those who use it daily and is an important supplement that is used all the time. This addiction is shown through a study that was put out explaining that "Americans drink about 146 billion cups of coffee per year. 66% of women drink coffee every day, compared to 62% of men" ( Nikolovska, 2022). When one walks down the street, it is almost a guaranteed that there is a Starbucks or local coffee shop within walking distance. Caffeine has made such a big impact to today's society and almost everyone uses it daily. The consumption of caffeine daily starts to bring up the question, "how is this affecting our brains and are there any harmful or healthy effects that it has on us?" As we dig into this question and study the effects, there are positive and negative effects of caffei...

Negative Effects of Caffeine to the Brain

Although caffeine is often consumed for the positive reasons that were listed in the previous post, there are also negative effects of it. Some of the short term effects that it has is it can increase breathing, heart rate, and mental and physical alertness. Some longer term effects can include chronic insomnia, anxiety, depression, and stomach problems. Some other effects are that it can cause high blood pressure and can sometimes make high blood pressure even worse. It also often becomes unsafe to drink caffeine in higher doses. It can cause “insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, nausea, increased heart rate, and other side effects. Larger doses might cause headache, anxiety, and chest pain” (Caffeine: Overview, uses, side effects, precautions, interactions, dosing and reviews).

Caffeine and the Brain

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