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StartFragmentWhat exactly is caffeine and how does it affect our ability to have a very good night's sleep? Did you know that if you drink tea, coffee, cacao, chocolate or most soft drink you are giving your body some sort of 'caffeine hit' every time you ingest it. Caffeine is one of the most favored psychoactive stimulant drugs or mood effecting drugs utilized in the world today. So with 80% of people worldwide consuming java on a daily basis, it is not surprising that sleep disorders and insomnia tend to be rising quickly and becoming a large health concern. Where made it happen all start? It has been documented that since the Stone Age people have consumed caffeine in one form or the other. Caveman days people found the chewing the seeds, leaves or even bark of certain plants had a stimulating have an effect on on them as well as easing their fatigue levels. As period pasted it was discovered that if the plant was steeped inside hot water the effects of caffeine increased and your hot caffeinated drink was born. What is caffeine? Chemically speaking, pure caffeine is really a plant-based alkaloid which stimulates our central nervous system when consumed. The chemical caffeine is found in more than 60 plants throughout nature in their leaves, seeds and fruit. But wherever is it found in the food and drink that we readily purchase from any shop? Caffeine is found in a wide variety of hot and chilly drinks readily available as well as in chocolate, dairy products and some medications. Obviously we all know that one of the easiest ways to get a caffeine strike is having a cup of coffee. The amount of caffeine in a coffee, a coffee bought from the same coffee house can vary even on a single day. This is because brewing methods and roasting styles can impact the amount of caffeine in each cup. The lighter that this beans have been roasted the more caffeine they have in them. Exactly what has caffeine in it? In a 16oz Starbucks coffee you are likely to get approximately 330mg of caffeine. This is more than the Us National Institute of Health considers to be the average, or perhaps a moderate daily caffeine intake (which is about 250mg involving caffeine or three 8oz cups of coffee). The Usa National Institute of Health considers ten 8oz glasses of coffee per day is considered to be an excessive daily intake of the level of caffeine. With this in mind we all need to ask: How much caffeine am I dealing with a daily basis? The list of products which include caffeine doesn't stop generally there: sodas and energy drinks also have loads of caffeine inside them. A standard can of Red Bull has 80mg connected with caffeine and 12oz Pepsi One has 55mg of level of caffeine. The list just keeps getting bigger with caffeine becoming found in everything from latte flavored yogurts and readily available coffee beans milk drink, to chocolate, tea, ice creams in addition to pain medications and diet and study pills. More than recent years different manufacturers have started putting caffeine in to bath products. These products include shampoos and soap; plus studies have found that your body starts to absorb the levels of caffeine through the skin after approximately 2 minutes of use. This really is done mainly through your hair follicles and the caffeine then gets to your blood stream. How Caffeine affects us. Looking via this wide list of products, it is easy to see just how easily accessible caffeine is in our modern society, but how does caffeine influence us? Caffeine is very similar structurally to the chemical Adenosine which occurs naturally in our bodies. Adenosine is the substance that builds up slowly over the day and tells the body it is time to sleep. Caffeine blocks the buildup of the compound Adenosine and by doing so our bodies are tricked into considering we don't need sleep. To make matters worse the body quickly build up a tolerance to caffeine so that the much more you drink the more you need to feel the same affect. Numerous shown complete tolerance to any effects is developed right after ingesting 400mg of caffeine 3 times a day for seven days. This means that you're now consuming a large amount of caffeine and your entire body will experience all the detrimental effects but non-e from the stimulating effect. So in order for you to feel the same buzz you have to increase your caffeine intake. Surprising isn't it? Caffeine through coffee and other beverages is absorbed by your stomach and even small intestine within approximately 45 minutes of drinking this and the affects are very fast acting. The good news is that your body does not hold or retain any caffeine in your system for a long time of time. You pass it completely through your pores together with urine. Caffeine has a half-life of three to four hours, a new half-life being the amount of time it takes to eliminated the actual caffeine in your body by one half. For example if you drink your 16oz Starbucks coffee (330mg) at 6 in the evening after which go to bed at 10pm that night you will still have approximately 165mg with caffeine in your system that is stopping you from getting a fine nights sleep.