Episode #25 - "Reality is Caffeinated"

“Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.”

— Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author and pilot

Date Published

10/11/2024

Main Topic

Caffeine

Length

1hr 17min

We kick this episode off by defining some terms and highlighting the fact that caffeine is not the same as coffee and tea. Caffeine is a psychoactive stimulant and is found in more things than just coffee or tea, such as chocolate. To get to the root of how caffeine works, we need to look at adenosine. Mr Beard gives a quick overview of ATP or adenosine triphosphate, and how our bodies use up ATM over the course of the day, releasing adenosine and leading to a ‘sleep pressure’. Caffeine interrupts the action of adenosine in the brain and staves off this sleep pressure to keep us awake.

Mr C goes on to go through some of the health benefits of caffeine, such as being linked to reducing the prevalence and onset of Alzheimer’s disease, certain cancers, diabetes, and even tooth cavities. And in more immediately apparent benefits, caffeine can boost muscle efficiency and reduce perceived level of effort when working out.

But as with most things in live, there are two sides to the coin, and there are health downsides to caffeine consumption as well. Caffeine can have a big impact on sleep. Even if you feel like you can fall asleep easily after drinking coffee, due to the half life of caffeine, the quality of your sleep will be impacted by caffeine in your system. Some tips from our hosts on how to balance your caffeine intake over the course of the day is to skip the first coffee in the morning and replace is with half a grapefruit. The compound naringin acts as a slow release on the caffeine to smooth it out over the day.

Our conversation moves on then to discussing the origins of coffee – check out the further reading points below for more info on this. Mr Beard floats the idea that coffee and it’s sobering and stimulating effects, replacing the ‘morning beer’ could have had a significant effect on the direction of human civilisation. One thing to come from this was Penny Universities, where all walks of life could pay a penny to enter coffee house...