Coffee: The go-to beverage after waking up, or for pulling an all-nighter, and when you want to work at Starbucks. Hot, cold, bitter or sweetened, or any other way you drink it, coffee can give you a boost for the day.
Coffee and Productivity
Coffee contains caffeine, and caffeine is the wonder compound that makes coffee, the productivity soup. Caffeine has a few tricks which make it the ‘must-have’ when you need to be active and get work done.
1. Reduces Tiredness
Caffeine is a known stimulant. In your brain, it blocks the function of an inhibitory neurotransmitter (brain hormone) called adenosine. By blocking adenosine, caffeine increases activity in your brain and releases other neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and dopamine. This reduces tiredness and makes you feel more alert. Helpful, after a long day of exhaustion.
2. Boost in Cognitive Function
Numerous studies demonstrate that caffeine can lead to a short-term boost in brain function, improving mood, reaction time, vigilance, and general cognitive function. In a word, it makes you more ‘active’.
3. Helps to Learn
It has been shown that 200 mg of caffeine can help you identify words and phrases faster than normal. And when we want more productivity, this increased speed is extremely valuable.
4. Improves Performance
Coffee increases heart rate blood pressure, and endurance. A higher heart rate means more blood (and in turn oxygen) is supplied to your brain, increasing activeness and clarity. Drinking coffee is linked with improved endurance and reduced the pain reception, encouraging you to push it that bit further.
5. Reduces Risk for Diseases
Coffee is also shown to help stay healthy and even to reduce the risk of death by 5% to16%. And staying healthy is a prerequisite for being productive. Studies have also shown that coffee drinkers had an 84% lower risk of developing cirrhosis, a 20% lower risk of becoming a 32–60% lower risk of Parkinson’s disease, and a 23–67% reduced risk of developing type-2 diabetes.
Sleep and coffee: Coffee reduces our desire to sleep. Adenosine is responsible for making us feel sleepy, and since caffeine blocks this function, we won’t feel sleepy, but we still need the sleep to remove harmful chemicals from our brain. Coffee also increases our heart rate, in effect increasing our physical activity, the exact opposite for us to feel sleepy.
Benefits: This is definitely helpful when it comes to pulling all-nighters or to be active during the day, but that’s about it.
Damages: Coffee may negatively impact your sleep quality and quantity. Studies have found that higher caffeine intake appears to increase the amount of time it takes to fall asleep. It may also decrease total sleeping time and sleep quality, especially in the elderly. While the effect of caffeine on your sleep is extremely dependent on you, it is also common to underestimate the excess amount of caffeine intake.
Prevention: It’s important to pay attention to both the amount and timing of caffeine to optimize your sleep. To prevent negatively affecting the sleep, it is recommended to stop drinking coffee after about 2:00 pm, caffeine consumed later in the day may interfere with sleep because its effects can take several hours to wear off.
Another important factor is to drink in moderation, if unsure drink only 1 to 2 cups of coffee a day: one early in the morning and one early afternoon.
Coffee for You
While there are about 25 major species of coffee around the world, only about 3 of them are cultivated for commercial consumption. Coffee beans have 4 specific distinctions:
Aroma: The smell of the brewed coffee is the aroma.
Acidity: Acidity is the dry, bright, and sparkling sensation that gives coffee its unique taste.
Body: it is the feel of how rich or intense the coffee is as it settles on your tongue.
Flavor: The flavor of coffee is, simply, the taste of your coffee.
An important which determines the flavor of the coffee is the processing of roasting. Darker roasts have a more bitter taste profile, while lighter roasts retain the more natural flavor. Tip: darker roasts of coffee also contain less amount of caffeine.
There are a lot of ways to enjoy your coffee, but for the best results, enjoy your coffee without milk or sugar.
Next time you are feeling down or unproductive: reach for a glass of black coffee, and watch your mood get slightly better after half an hour.
Written By - Joshua
Edited By - Vaibhav Sharma
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