Caffeine’s alertness-boosting power starts in the brain. In this segment, Dr. Logan Pendergrast, Ph.D., explains how caffeine interacts with key neurotransmitters to temporarily delay fatigue and enhance focus. By influencing the brain’s chemical signaling, caffeine promotes a heightened state of alertness and sharper reaction times — benefits that become especially relevant for those operating on limited or irregular sleep. This lesson provides a clear, science-based understanding of how caffeine supports mental performance when used strategically.
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We've talked about how many adults are
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consuming caffeine per day and how much
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they're consuming and also the sources
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of caffeine. We can now start to talk
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about how caffeine works. So caffeine
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keeps us awake which we know but it does
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that by blocking the effects of
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adenosine which is a neurom modulator
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that works in the brain to make us feel
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sleepy. it actually binds in the brain
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to the receptor for adenosine and
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prevents adenosine itself from binding
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to that receptor. So in doing so,
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caffeine can kind of delay the feelings
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of sleepiness that we get throughout the
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day and it also indirectly boosts our
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dopamine which is our motivation
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neurotransmitter and also our
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norepinephrine signaling which is a
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fancy way of the of describing the
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adrenaline feelings that we have in our
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brain. So these uh effects of caffeine
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mean that caffeine is not only reducing
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how tired we feel but also increasing
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our motivation and our alertness. And
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the end result is we have an increased
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very alert state that also correlates
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with an increased reaction time better
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vigilance and even like improved
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performance under sleepdeprived
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conditions.
