How To Maximize Your Caffeine Kick For Your Hectic Day?

Many of us love and adore coffee like it is an important part of our life. The fragrance of roasted coffee beans and the taste of its first sip can be called the best feeling ever for a coffee drinker. Like routine, we as coffee drinkers may actively look forward to the next morning’s cup before jumping into bed every night. Coffee is like a magical potion that helps us to stay alert throughout the day. This is the reason why knowing when we should be drinking coffee is pretty important to our ability to sleep well at night and function.

Instead of chugging it down all day long, it would be better to drink it in an efficient way since it is technically a psychotropic stimulant. This article will be a little guide for all coffee drinkers to help you make the most of your coffee habit, why it is recommended to do it, and how you can maximize your caffeine kick for your hectic day. 

Coffee Is Technically A Psychotropic Stimulant

According to an article on Science Alert, coffee is the most commonly used psycho-active substance in the world. There are more discussions about coffee’s natural substance from our site, specifically, on how much caffeine in a cup of coffee, and for those who drink decaf can check some of their facts like caffeine content in decaf. Steven Miller, a Ph.D, stated in the same article of Science Alert that it is important to consider caffeine is also a drug, and drugs can have quite an effect on our internal body chemistry.

Basically, it is not necessary to solely focus on the time our body most benefits from the substance because it only makes us confused between when we feel great and being productive. Therefore, it is important to know about your body; if you are not in tune with your body and its needs, you can make yourself unproductive and even more tired. 

Despites that, most caffeine addicts might be surprised to learn that the way they consume coffee might actually affect their productivity. The productivity is the result of caffeine kick after they consume. Instead of boosting it, their drinking habit might be sabotaging their productivity. You do not have to be a super strategic coffee drinker, but you can easily make the most out of it if you know some of these tips. 

Do Not Drink Coffee First Thing

According to Psychology Today, a health blogger and writer Linda Wasmer Andrews have mentioned that having a coffee intake right after you wake up is not the optimal time to be consuming it. It is not the right time to drink because during the moment you wake up, cortisol levels peak in our bodies, usually between 8 am and 9 am, and will gradually drop off after. Cortisol is the hormone that makes us feel awake and alert, and this hormone is active when we wake up to help us freshen up our days. Your body naturally releases high levels of cortisol in an attempt to wake you up. Therefore, caffeine does not do much for your body during this releasing process. This means that our bodies are already alert for the first hour after we wake up from bed, and it is better off waiting for it to drop.

In addition, the right time to have coffee intake can vary, thus, it is also significant to know the best time of your day to drink coffee. If you look forward to limiting your overall coffee consumption, you can wait or at least have a cup by 10 am for people who drink more than 2 cups of coffee. Knowing this can help you maximize your caffeine kick for your hectic day and be productive for a long time. 

Drink Coffee Before Your Workout

The caffeine content in coffee does not just help overcome our brain’s grogginess in the morning, it can also help boost our physical performance too. Moreover, researchers have found that the natural stimulant in coffee has the capacity to improve athletic performance. Therefore, a cup of coffee or more caffeine pills can help us on the day of a big race, or any sporting event. Additionally, for those who are non-athletics, drinking a cup of coffee before doing exercise can boost our workout performance, energy and motivate us to go further during workouts. In this case, coffee is explained to provide quite a lot of advantages, for example, caffeine and health benefits.

Do Not Be Afraid To Have An Early Afternoon Cup 

Linda Wasmer Andrews also mentioned that the cortisol levels in our body generally experience a sort of mini-peak around midday, namely lunchtime. However, it will drop off again around 1 pm in the afternoon. You can try saving your coffee for that time instead of drinking coffee right before lunch or during lunch. This way you will probably find it kicks in when you need it to be effective. 

Moreover, we do not just feel tired; it is the buildup of adenosine molecules in our body which make the brain slow down. Then, it causes us to feel sleepy or groggy that can interrupt our work performance. When you take a sip of coffee, the caffeine content prevents your energy from dipping from adenosine-induced tiredness or sleepiness. Thus, it is recommended to drink coffee before you feel tired in order to effectively maximize your caffeine kick or else it will be too late. 

Furthermore, it is undeniable that caffeinated beverages such as coffee and tea are delightful for their taste alone; despite that, we need to think about the amount of caffeine contained in it more than its flavor. If your consumed coffee already contains high caffeine content, then it is better to cut it down a bit. This way you won’t feel like you overdo it, especially if you want to have an afternoon cup after having one in the morning. Consuming too much can cut down its efficiency. 

Caffeinate Yourself Then Take A Quick Nap

Coffee is like a magic potion, except it is edible and tasty. It is also considered a multi-purpose tool. We all know that coffee is the best energy drink to keep us alert and productive. Besides, you can drink coffee to help you take a nap. It might sound a bit weird, but you can have the best nap ever after drinking coffee.

What is a caffeine nap? Taking a caffeine nap means you drink a cup of coffee before an afternoon nap. With this technique, you will get all the brain-boosting benefits of your nap as soon as you wake up. This is to help your brain clear out of the receptors or adenosine when you wake up as well because caffeine may take a while to be absorbed into our bloodstream and reach the brain. By doing this, you can increase or maximize your caffeine kick after the nap, and continue with your day with at least 2 hours of focused energy. 

Space It Out: Give A Break On Your Coffee Intake

One study from Harvard Medical School has found that small, frequent doses of caffeine are more effective than a huge intake first thing in the early morning. Instead of one tremendous jolt of coffee when you wake up, you can try drinking a small amount each time, but you can drink it more frequently.

To put it more effectively and precisely, you can try small or moderate doses throughout the day with about 20 to 200mg of caffeine per hour. This is to prevent you from jolting a whole pot of coffee at once. According to Charles Czeisler, one of the school’s head professors said that about a quarter of a cup every hour could keep the experienced groups more alert throughout the day than a sizable amount consumed every few hours. 

Do Not Drink Late At Night

In general, caffeine can affect your natural sleep rhythms and levels of awareness, meaning it will likely affect the routine of morning people rather than night owls. If you are a morning person, you should know when to correctly drink coffee in morning in order not to affect your sleep. Therefore, many people tend to avoid afternoon or past the afternoon coffee intake, or else they will stay up at night.

 to the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, a published study found that consuming caffeine 6 hours before bed has profound disruptive effects on sleep patterns. To put this simple, if you typically go to sleep around 10 or 11 each night, it is not recommended to drink caffeine after 4 or 5 pm.

Choose The Right Beans For More Or Less Caffeine

Thinking of choosing your coffee right, you probably think of choosing espresso for a stronger-tasting coffee drink. However, what type of drink it is, does not matter. The degree of caffeine depends on the roasting process, and what type of beans it is used to make.

There are many different types of coffee that have most caffeine, yet the most famous coffee beans are Robusta and Arabica. Normally, Robusta has twice the caffeine compared to the caffeine content in Arabica. Robusta has higher caffeine content and is also cheaper. Thus, Robusta is used to make instant coffee, for more details on the most preferred types, you can read the recommended instant coffee.

Make Your Own Coffee When Possible

If you spent too much money on just coffee, this is a more budget strategy than a coffee strategy per se by making your own coffee whenever possible. According to ABC News, an average American spends about $1,100 a year on coffee alone. This amount includes people who do not spend money on coffee at the café, it is assumed that some of us actually spend a lot more than that. Coffee is an awesome drink and it can make your day better, it can freshen you up, but do not let it break your wallet. Thus, it is suggested to have a coffee maker at home.

There are so many varieties of choices in coffee makers and coffee machines you can easily find on the market, but what is more important is your needs, whether you want a more affordable price or more efficient. With homemade coffee, you can always customize and get creative with your drink to enhance your caffeine kick. In addition, there are many ways to drink your coffee, and here are 6 ways from different cities around the world:

1. Rome, Italy: espresso has been a popular drink for Romans since 1938. It is a concentrated brew with a layer of crema on top. To make espresso, you just need to force scalding water through fine grounds.
2. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: coffee was introduced to Vietnam in 1857 by the French, they served it by mixing spoonful of sweetened condensed milk in the Vietnamese coffee which was brewed with a metal filter (called a phin). Then, they stir the mixture and pour over ice.  Check more for Vietnamese coffee recipes with coconut.
3. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: they serve it traditionally involving roasting the fresh beans over coals and brewing the grounds (3 times) while burning incense. However, this coffee ceremony only serves in a private home.
4. Macau, China: this one is a bit creative, and this drink is called yuanyang. To make it, you put Black tea filtering through cloth and mix with sweetened condensed milk and coffee. 
5. Chennai, India: it is called kaapi or degree coffee which dates back to the 16th century. Kaapi has been the drink of choice in south India. The making process involves brewing coffee in a metal filter and then mixing with boiling milk. 
6. Stockholm, Sweden: Sweden is one of the largest coffee consumers in the world, and the daily break involves coffee with snacks. The common drink is often a warm mug of drip brew with cinnamon buns. 

Other Alternatives To Maximize Your Caffeine Kick

How can we maximize our caffeine kick when our wallet is thin? Sometimes coffee can be a factor that doubles your expense, and this is how you can caffeinate yourself and get the buzz with your bucks. Caffeine substance can be found in many other beverages such as soft drinks like soda and various energy drinks. Considering these, you can choose among them for your alertness factor. However, these soft drinks are not cost-efficient if you want a caffeine kick for your small bucks. So does tea because different tea types and brands may contain more caffeine than several types of coffee.  

Moreover, the caffeine that is contained in tea can affect us differently from the one contained in coffee. The caffeine content in tea provides us the alertness effects like coffee does, however, the caffeine substance in tea does not cause us caffeine crashes. This means if you are seeking ways to cut down your daily coffee intake, drinking tea can help you decrease around 80% of caffeine with a cup of tea. With just a small tea bag of your choice, you can brew it for less time with just hot water for more caffeine kick to start your day.

Craving For Coffee Does Not Necessarily Means Time To Maximize Your Caffeine Kick

Compared to other addictive drugs, caffeine has much weaker addictive effects to our system, but a study explains the reactivity of our brain responded with caffeine is similar to the way it engages with drugs. Regarding one observation on 56 students, the result of the psychological test on these students revealed that students who drink coffee heavily had a strong desire for more caffeine. Their craving for coffee is much higher than those students who drink coffee less. Nonetheless, the study indicates that the two groups of coffee drinkers have one thing in common, which is the low liking for coffee despite excessive consumption. 

On top of that, in many people’s routines, coffee intake is one of their important parts of the day. They consume coffee as a way to express something about themselves, their personality, it can be a lifestyle or a mechanism to boost their productivity. Coffee drinkers may say coffee expresses their identity, yet it is depending on the drinker themselves whether they drink it out of addiction or for their lifestyle. Because someone who has a low liking for coffee still relies on caffeine, they might not notice that their brain is actually depending on the alertness from caffeine kick. 

You Should Know How To Improve Your Caffeine Tolerance

Many coffee drinkers become dependent on coffee for caffeine kick, and they come in various forms. There are coffee drinkers who have their cuppa daily just to wake up, and then there are those who love coffee like a hobby. A study shows that heavy coffee drinkers might crave coffee more though they may not necessarily like coffee because, rather than for pleasure, they drink to feed their addiction. Consequently, they are struggling with caffeine withdrawal whenever they stop. If you have problems with coffee addiction, and you want to cut down your excessive consumption and dependence on coffee, you can look up alternatives to replace your caffeine intake or tactics on what to do to decrease your coffee consumption.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is always important to remember that it is actually the chemical stimulant in coffee that actively affects our bodies, so we should treat it carefully as well. You should remember that coffee works like a drug except it is mildly addictive. According to Knapp and Zeratsky, even if you only drink a small cup as a fresh start and to finish your simple tasks, you can develop a reinforced habit unknowingly. If you have been feeling unwell, like feeling jittery lately, or like your coffee routines are not really making you any more productive, then it is time to try out some of the above ways. Therefore, you can maximize your caffeine kick or make the most out of your daily intake. 

References:

• Former Googlers say your coffee habit could be killing your productivity | Zameena Mejia | CNBC
• Top 10 Tricks to Get the Most Out of Your Caffeine Hit | Melanie Pinola | Lifehacker 
• How To Make The Most Of Your Coffee Habit | Toria Sheffield | Buffle
• People who think they love drinking coffee may just be addicted to the caffeine kick | Kasia Delgado | iNews
• Caffeine Kick: 6 Ways to Drink a Cup of Coffee |  Meredith Bethune | National Geographic Traveller India