Feeling Tired After Drinking Coffee – 7 Reasons Why!

We all love our caffeine kick in the morning, don’t we? But, have you ever wondered why you are suddenly feeling so mellow even after drinking coffee? While coffee is supposed to charge you up, if you have been feeling tired after drinking coffee, there could be some medical reasons that you don’t know of.

I am personally not a big fan of coffee but I have friends who are. And, oftentimes, I do find them coming to me and saying that drinking coffee is making them tired.

So, I thought I’d look into it and jot down all the pointers to answer the question of “Why does coffee make me sleepy instead of awake”.

Is the Tiredness Really Because of the Coffee?

When you are here wondering “why coffee makes me tired”, do you really think it’s the coffee or is it the time of the day you are drinking it or the kind of effects it leaves behind on your body that needs to be looked into?

To be fair, caffeine is considered the main element that can either energize you within a matter of seconds or at the same time, also end up affecting your health for the worse as well.

Knowing the reasons why coffee could be causing the issues can further help you plan things in accordance to that.

When you are feeling tired or sleepy just after drinking coffee, it is possible that the coffee is the main thing to be blamed.

Why Does Coffee Make Me Sleep?

When you drink coffee in the morning, your main aim is to get rid of the constant tiredness that you might be experiencing. If you are experiencing the complete opposite of that, chances are that what you are doing could very well be hindering with the normal processes happening in your body.

This is the reason why it is important that you know why coffee makes you sleepy.

To help you understand things a little better, we have sorted out some of the important insights that you need to know of.

1. Adenosine Blocker

When it comes to the reason why does coffee makes you sleep immediately is because of the fact that it has direct impacts in blocking the adenosine release into the nervous system.

For those who aren’t aware, adenosine is the chemical that is responsible for tackling our sleep-wakefulness cycle.

The adenosine levels (R) during the day, when you are awake, are high but then eventually make you feel drowsy by suppression of the activity in the basal forebrain. During night when we are asleep, the adenosine levels drop completely.

When you drink coffee, the caffeine in it has been found to block the brain from receiving the adenosine to the receptors (R). But, the caffeine doesn’t have any kind of impacts on the production of adenosine which means that the production is normal but caffeine doesn’t allow the produced adenosine to attach to the receptors.

The excess build-up of the adenosine is what causes the tiredness that you often feel after drinking a cup of coffee.

2. Excess Sugar in the Coffee

If you like to drink your coffee with excess sugar, chances are that the same will impact your health in the long run.

Adding too much sugar to the coffee ends up causing a sugar rush in the body, making your body crash the moment the sugar is used up by the system. Since the sugar is processed a lot quicker, you do experience a spike of energy but then crash just as quickly.

There is not much proper scientific explanation but you have been looking into reasons why you are tired after drinking coffee, we would say that the sugar could be a factor to blame.

3. The Diuretic Impacts

If you are wondering why coffee makes you sleepy, it could be because of the diuretic impacts (R) that it has on the body. For those who aren’t aware what it means, it means that coffee makes your body lose water quickly.

For those who have a habit of drinking a lot of coffee daily, you will find that you tend to pee a lot more as well, which is all because of the diuretic impacts.

This is one of the reasons why coffee could be making you tired a lot because drinking excess coffee results in dehydration, ending up making you feel tired and sluggish.

It is a consistent cycle, which is why you need to find ways to put a stop to the habit and come up with healthier options instead.

4. Building More Tolerance

When you tend to drink coffee on a regular basis and that too, a lot, chances are that your body will end up building a tolerance to the caffeine in the long run.

But, since the caffeine tends to impact and block the adenosine receptor functions, the ends up producing more adenosine receptor to compensate.

Even a conducted study with 15 individuals found that drinking coffee on a regular basis has direct impacts on one’s endurance in the long haul because their body ends up building a resistance against the caffeine consumed.

5. It Varies From Person to Person

If you have been feeling tired after drinking coffee, know for a fact that not everyone feels the same. This is one of the reasons why it is important that you understand the consequences first and not jump to conclusions.

Every person’s body is different and has a different kinds of reactions to various things and activities. If you have been experiencing consistent issues with the caffeine and how it is making you tired, it is important that you understand that the same is because of how your body is programmed.

Not every person experiences the sluggish experiences after a cup of coffee and the same is often different with different people.

There are several subsidiary factors that could be to blame, for example, the amount of water you are drinking and so on and so forth. The kind of caffeine that you are drinking could also play a very crucial role in this if you didn’t know any better.

6. It is the Cheap Variant

The coffee beans say a lot about the quality of the coffee which is one of the reasons why you could be feeling tired.

If you are drinking the cheap variant of coffee, chances are that the same will end up causing negative impacts on your body especially that of sluggishness and constant discomfort in the long run.

When you drink cheaper variants of the coffee, they do have a high level of mycotoxins in them which have direct impacts on your health, especially when it comes to the energy levels in the body.

These toxins and molds also often affect the brain and cause brain fog and drowsiness, further making you feel like the way you are when you say that coffee makes you tired.

7. Heightened Blood Sugar Levels

Even if you don’t add a lot of sugar in your coffee, there are instances which have proved that caffeine itself often ends up affecting the blood glucose levels in the body.

This is one of the reasons why experts suggest that drinking caffeine ends up affecting the spike in the blood sugar levels.

While there are not many studies that suggest how or why it happens, it is believed that the persistent spike in the blood glucose is what makes many experiences the constant fatigue and the sluggish behavior that they have after their coffee.

How to Get Rid of That Feeling?

If you know the reasons why you are tired after drinking coffee, it becomes a lot easier for you to handle the situation.

For the most part, it is important that you find alternatives to get rid of the constant feeling that you might have been experiencing. Caffeine does have direct impacts on your nervous system and has direct impacts on different people.

So, if you have been wondering why coffee makes you sleepy, it is important that you find better ways to cope with that feeling.

Here, we have suggested some of the ways that can help recover from the sluggish feeling that you might be having after drinking coffee.

1. Cut Down the Sugar

The sugar that you are adding to your brew could be making you feel sluggish. So, one of the best ways to cope with the issue is by cutting out the sugar completely or at least, reducing the amount so it doesn’t impose negative impacts on the body’s reaction.

Doing so can help reduce the impacts of the sugar rush, thus helping reduce the sluggishness and the constant drowsy impacts that you feel right after. Just make sure that you don’t end up adding too much that affects your health.

2. Control How Much

There is nothing wrong with moderate consumption of caffeine in any form. The problem arises when the amount is way more than what the body needs or should have.

If you have been experiencing tiredness after drinking coffee every single time, chances are that it is the caffeine tolerance that could be causing the problem.

The last thing you want is for your body to experience the tolerance and the heightened adenosine response which has negative impacts on the body.

To be fair, the best way to tackle that situation is by reducing the frequency of the coffee drinking. If you are drinking once or twice a day, keep it at that and don’t make it a habit of drinking it every 2 hours.

3. Focus on the Quality

As we did mention before, the quality of the coffee beans matter a lot. The last thing you want is to wonder why does coffee make me sleepy instead of awake and the quality has a lot to play in it.

Cheaper variants of coffee from Vietnam and Brazil are often processed with a very bad in terms of the quality and the way they are processed which does have negative impacts, especially when you are drinking it.

So, if you don’t want to experience through that, it is best that you instead get the good quality variants that might cost more but won’t affect your health for the worse.

4. Include More Water

If you are drinking coffee, one of the best ways to minimize the impacts of the drowsiness and the constant sleepiness is by drinking more water alongside and after the coffee.

This helps balance out the issues with dehydration that is bound to happen, especially to the ones who drink a lot of coffee throughout the day.

If you are feeling tired after drinking coffee, it is likely because your body is dehydrated. Just keep some water handy with you and trust me, the rest will fall into place.

For those who have been struggling and feeling tired after drinking coffee, we would suggest that you make yourself aware of why it is happening. Doing so helps in reducing the impacts and even helps in reducing the symptoms to an extent as well. We have sorted out some of the important reasons why it could be happening and how you can overcome it. I hope it helps!