31st May 2022
A phrase that echoes around every office wall, from janitor to CEO. Columns upon columns of high rises with a multitude of quirky chic dispensers on each floor. They administer the sought after chemicals that our society relies upon to function. I am talking about coffee.
“I am so tired I think I need my coffee…I haven’t had it this morning”, “I can barely function without my coffee”, “I’m so tired, I feel like falling asleep…haha it’s because you haven’t had your coffee”. Just before gulping down the dark liquid with their brown stained teeth these all to familiar phrases are said in a colloquial and light manner. Cloaking the deeper message of “I need a dosage of caffeine in my circulatory system to operate as I have not rested enough and looked after myself”.
It is quite shocking when you look at it for what it is. Our society runs on the work done by a quick caffeine fix, prolonging the much needed sleep that wants to nourish us. Culturally it has been glossed with humour and joyously accepted. The scent alluring and lulling us into the promise of efficiency. The reality is different. Caffeine is the the most widely used psychoactive compound, but we don’t treat it as such, it is also addictive increasing dopamine and serotonin. It is an adenosine receptor antagonist. It promotes wakefulness by blocking adenosine A2A receptors. Which means adenosine builds up and once caffeine dissipates we get a huge wave of sleepiness telling us to please sleep, but the answer for the humble office worker is to top up on their afternoon psychoactive coffee.
The fact that our current lifestyle is so busy that most people do not sleep enough and try to hack our brain to work day after day chronically is not going to end well. As in the last blog we see how fundamentally important sleep is, yet we seem to prioritise the business of life and lose sensitivity not only to the world around us but ourselves. Pumping ourselves, our kids and our society with external substances and rely on these to better ourselves. Much pain may be avoided if only we look inwards for that reliability, this comes with awareness through education or suffering.
As mentioned before the book ‘Why We Sleep’ by Professor Matthew Walker points to some eye opening facts about this. After consuming the level of caffeine in your blood peaks about one hour later and stays at this level for several hours. Six hours after caffeine is consumed, half of it is still in your body. Meaning having a cup of coffee at 12pm noon, a quarter of it is still blocking those brain receptors from sleeping at 12am midnight. This will reduce our deep sleep by about 20%. To put into context: accelerating aging by 15-20 years is the same equivalent of losing 20% deep sleep. The next day we of course need more coffee to top up to treat our poor sleep and the cycle continues.
It not just the caffeine in coffee, many people consume much chocolate and tea before sleeping and of course alcohol. The basic respect and attention we pay our bodies as a society has not been present simply due to busy-ness and unawareness. We look for a quick fix when moving, trying to get to the future, rather that becoming still and noticing where the issue and pain is. To know ourselves deeply.
How a simple cup of coffee can show a deep truth! Of course it is worth saying take it with a pinch of salt or rather caffeine, since apparently coffee’s compounds can give you a longer life. Everything in moderation, but do we truly know what moderation is if we have never tasted it…
-Jhoty
Jhoty 