I’ve covered the toxic nature of caffeine, a defense chemical produced by plants, in several articles. Caffeine is a poison that have become mainstream by conditioning and brainwashing and it wreaks havoc on your body due to its ability to induce a fight-or-flight stress response as well as blocking adenosine receptors in the brain, which in turn enhances the effect of the fight-or-flight response by a larger release of neurotransmitters like adrenaline, dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, glutamate, and GABA — and thus inducing even more stress on the body than a regular stressful situation (such as being in danger and fighting for your life.) Additionally, caffeine mobilizes intracellular calcium and inhibits phosphodiesterases, which increases cyclic AMP levels — enhancing the mobilization of glucose and fatty acid reserves in tissues like muscle and adipose tissue, promoting glycogenolysis and lipolysis and thus increasing available energy.
Please note that as little as 35mg of caffeine, as in half a cup of coffee or a can of Pepsi/Cola, is enough to trigger a fight-or-flight stress response.
The combination of the fight-or-flight stress response, enhances neurotransmitter release and cAMP levels creates an extreme stress event in the body, increasing breathing and heart rate, while also enhancing mental alertness and physical energy — all needed to escape an dangerous situation. While it will make you perform and possibly feel better, it is extremely demanding on your body and your organs, not to mention the toxic and damaging effect of caffeine on tissues and especially the brain. For more on this, read my articles “Caffeine is a Defense Chemical and a Potent Poison — Do Not Neglect Accumulated Damage” and “The Accumulated Damage From Daily Caffeine Use.” Also, the article “Stupidity 101: Stimulants (Guarana) Reduce Perceived (Cancer) Fatigue,” might be of interest as it covers stimulants in general.
To add to the devastating effects of caffeine, we will look at a recent study summarized by Science Daily on caffeine’s effect on the sleeping brain. The findings should be common sense if you understand biochemistry and the effects of caffeine, but at least they reported on it, so let’s see what they found.
“Caffeine is not only found in coffee, but also in tea, chocolate, energy drinks and many soft drinks, making it one of the most widely consumed psychoactive substances in the world.”
Yes, and this is by design as with so many other toxic substances. It deceives you by a fake “energy boost,” a “pick-me-up” which in reality is a damaging stress response from its toxicity and chemically altering effects on your physiology. This “euphoric feeling” adds to its addictive nature and as such, as you will keep coming back for more, it will induce long term damage which is exactly what the ruling elite want, as they need to keep you weak, deceived, dumbed down and dependent on their system and their solutions (inverted “science”, the corrupt food industry, big pharma and medical care.)
“In a study published in April in Nature Communications Biology, a team of researchers from Université de Montréal shed new light on how caffeine can modify sleep and influence the brain’s recovery — both physical and cognitive — overnight.”
Considering the toxic effects of caffeine and its half-life of up to 7 hours (up to 14 hours clearing time,) even if you take it only earlier in the day, it will linger and affect your sleep, so studies like these are much needed. Although I doubt that they will get much exposure and will simply be added to the “potential risks” of taking caffeine late in the day, as in “close to bedtime.”
“They showed for the first time that caffeine increases the complexity of brain signals and enhances brain “criticality” during sleep. Interestingly, this was more pronounced in younger adults.
Criticality describes a state of the brain that is balanced between order and chaos, said Jerbi. It’s like an orchestra: too quiet and nothing happens, too chaotic and there’s cacophony. Criticality is the happy medium where brain activity is both organized and flexible. In this state, the brain functions optimally: it can process information efficiently, adapt quickly, learn and make decisions with agility.
Added Carrier: Caffeine stimulates the brain and pushes it into a state of criticality, where it is more awake, alert and reactive. While this is useful during the day for concentration, this state could interfere with rest at night: the brain would neither relax nor recover properly.”
They showed this for the first time, you say? Well, it’s common sense that the alertness effects from a stress response will interfere with the relaxation of the brain and no study is needed to show this if you understand the toxicity of caffeine. As soon as I thought about caffeine and sleep I understood these mechanics and could paint a clear picture in my mind.
In the context of neuroscience, the “brain’s enhanced criticality” refers to a state where neural networks operate near phase transitions, balancing between order and randomness. This state is hypothesized to enhance the brain’s capacity for information processing and flexibility, allowing for efficient and robust computation. The brain’s ability to maintain a “critical state” is believed to be crucial for cognitive functions and may be disrupted in various neurological and psychiatric disorders.
With that said, the concept of “criticality” in the brain is not universally accepted, and there are ongoing debates about its ubiquity and functional significance, thus it remains as a significant area of investigation in neuroscience due to its potential implications for understanding brain function and dysfunction.
Studies have shown that neural networks in various species, including humans, tend to operate near the critical point, but this state is also disrupted by external factors such as sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, nutrient deficiencies, the wrong kind of metabolic fuel (high blood glucose instead of fat and ketones), and so on. So, the concept of “brain’s criticality” is more of a general state and enhancing it through a stress response is what is called “brain’s enhanced criticality.” And that is really bad news if it still occurs when you are sleeping and the brain should be relaxing and recovering. That is just logical and common sense.
40 adults studied
“To study how caffeine affects the sleeping brain, Carrier’s team recorded the nocturnal brain activity of 40 healthy adults using an electroencephalogram. They compared each participant’s brain activity on two separate nights — one when they consumed caffeine capsules three hours and then one hour before bedtime, and another when they took a placebo at the same times.”
Consuming caffeine three and one hours before bedtime kind of verified my previous worries. While this approach will really demonstrate the damaging effects of caffeine on a sleeping brain, a lot of people will shrug it off by adding this to the “do not take caffeine in the evening” recommendation that has already been in place for decades.
While the acute effects of caffeine are noticeable for about 3 to 4 hours, its half-life is between 3 to 7 hours, which means that there can still be lingering effects for 6 to 14 hours after consuming caffeine that can interfere with metabolic processes and the brain.
So, if you’re metabolic efficient, you might be able to clear out all the toxic effects of caffeine in 6 to 8 hours or so. But if you’re part of the average population, it will likely take you 10 to 14 hours to eliminate that caffeine. This means in reality, that for most people who take caffeine in the forenoon or even no later than lunch will still have interfering effects on their sleep.
“We used advanced statistical analysis and artificial intelligence to identify subtle changes in neuronal activity, said Thölke, the study’s first author. The results showed that caffeine increased the complexity of brain signals, reflecting more dynamic and less predictable neuronal activity, especially during the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) phase of sleep that’s crucial for memory consolidation and cognitive recovery.”
Well, “a more dynamic and less predictable neuronal activity” does not really sound good, does it? Especially since it occurred during the phase that is crucial for memory consolidation and cognitive recovery.
If you understand physiology and simple neuroscience, the consumption of caffeine on a regular basis for extended periods of time could thus contribute to mental fatigue and burnout, characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Something that has become more and more prevalent in recent years as energy drinks, pre-workout formulas and general stimulant consumption has increased.
“The researchers also discovered striking changes in the brain’s electrical rhythms during sleep: caffeine attenuated slower oscillations such as theta and alpha waves — generally associated with deep, restorative sleep — and stimulated beta wave activity, which is more common during wakefulness and mental engagement.”
While sleep- and neuroscience is not 100% understood or agreed upon, alpha waves are suggested to help in calming the mind and reducing stress, which is crucial for entering a state of deep sleep. Theta waves, in particular, are involved in the deepest levels of relaxation and are believed to be beneficial for improving intuition and creativity. Also, during stage 2 sleep, theta waves are interrupted by sleep spindles, which are rapid bursts of higher frequency brain waves that are believed to be important for learning and memory. So, theta waves are associated with implicit learning, creativity, information processing, and memory formation. Disrupting these stages every night, due to consumption of caffeine earlier in the day, is properly not a good idea.
“These changes suggest that even during sleep, the brain remains in a more activated, less restorative state under the influence of caffeine, says Jerbi, who also holds the Canada Research Chair in Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroimaging.
This change in the brain’s rhythmic activity may help explain why caffeine affects the efficiency with which the brain recovers during the night, with potential consequences for memory processing.”
Yes, I mentioned that and more. Although any intake of caffeine will stress and harm the body, as in reducing your lifespan, having it later than noon will reduce your brain’s ability to recover and especially reduce its learning, creativity, information processing, and memory formation. Again, this is one of many causes that can contribute to mental fatigue and burnout syndrome.
People in their 20s more affected
“The study also showed that the effects of caffeine on brain dynamics were significantly more pronounced in young adults between ages 20 and 27 compared to middle-aged participants aged 41 to 58, especially during REM sleep, the phase associated with dreaming.
Young adults showed a greater response to caffeine, likely due to a higher density of adenosine receptors in their brains. Adenosine is a molecule that gradually accumulates in the brain throughout the day, causing a feeling of fatigue.”
Yes, since this study had the participants taking the same dosage at the same time before going to bed, that is a logical conclusion. Adenosine receptors, as any receptors in the body, will wear down over time as you inflict damage and tissue can’t keep up, as in what most people call “aging.” In other words, the more wear and tear you have on your body, the less responsive you will be to the adenosine effects of caffeine.
With that being said, caffeine will still be as toxic and cause as much damage as before, or even more as your body will be less efficient at detoxification and tissue repair. So, while the effects on sleep might not be as pronounced when you’re older, the total damage to your body might be more pronounced instead.
“And these age-related differences suggest that younger brains may be more susceptible to the stimulant effects of caffeine. Given caffeine’s widespread use around the world, especially as a daily remedy for fatigue, the researchers stress the importance of understanding its complex effects on brain activity across different age groups and health conditions.”
Yes, this is very worrisome as young people tend to consume more of these caffeinated products than older people do, and especially later in the day as a “pick-me-up.” The latter will be very bad for sleep and your brain’s ability to recover and function over the long term.
Of course, a lot of people turn to these caffeinated products because their diet is complete sh*t and their blood sugar levels are all over the place, making them tired and lethargic, something that is extremely unnatural and only seen among humans who have been deceived to consume foods that are not species-appropriate — humans that do noy eat according to their physiology.
If you actually would follow our species-appropriate and natural human diet that we are constructed for, then we would, just like any other animal, have no use for any of these stimulants, supplements or drugs, because we would feel 100% all the time and have endless amounts of energy.
If you need help with any kind of health problems or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
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