Caffeine is the most widely used mind-altering substance in the world.

90% of adults and 50% of kids use it daily.

Most people are aware of the powers of it.

They know how helpful it can be to drink caffeine before any mental or physical activity.

But most people don’t know about the underlying mechanisms or how to take full advantage of them.

That’s why I’m making this full guide.

To teach you how caffeine works and how to use all of its benefits to your advantage.

No fluff, no BS, just pure practical advice.

Let’s get right into it.

How Caffeine Works

Let’s begin talking about how caffeine works.

Caffeine is part of a group of alkaloids that stimulate the central nervous system, also known as Methylxanthines.

I’m not gonna go into the details but just know that this group of alkaloids is composed of three known compounds:

1. Theophylline (Tea)

2. Theobromine (Cocoa and Chocolate)

3. And the one we’re talking about today, Caffeine (Coffee)

Now, most caffeine effects are related to the fact that it acts as an antagonist at the receptors for a neurotransmitter called adenosine, especially in the A1 and A2A receptors.

What caffeine does is it binds to those receptors and blocks adenosine from binding, reducing the activity of adenosine at those receptors.

This is because adenosine receptors are involved in promoting and regulating sleep.

Just know that I’m no neuroscientist, so if you’re interested in a better explanation and learning more about this topic, go and watch this video.

Or if you like images to understand more, I made the following image that I think sums up everything pretty well:

Let’s break it down.

On the left, you have your brain without consuming caffeine.

We all have adenosine receptors where adenosine binds.

(Btw before any neuroscientist bashes me, I know adenosine receptors are not exactly there, the image is just for illustration purposes.)

We know that adenosine promotes sleep.

When adenosine binds to those receptors, we fall asleep.

Caffeine binds to those receptors too (more specifically A1 and A2A.)

Then on the right, you have the same brain, but now having consumed caffeine.

The receptors now have caffeine bound.

When caffeine is bound, adenosine can’t bind.

Which keeps you more alert and gives you more energy as it blocks adenosine.

It is basically a love-hate relationship between adenosine and caffeine.

Pretty cool, right?

Now, that you know how caffeine works on your brain (briefly) we can talk about the practical stuff, the stuff you care about.

The Dosage

The dosage, from what I’ve seen online, it’s the topic that raises the most questions.

People don’t know how much caffeine to take.

Some people tell you to not take too much caffeine.

Others tell you to take like 10 cups a day (which is ridiculous in my opinion.)

Obviously, you can take as much caffeine as you want, there’s no limit (there probably is one but it probably is very high).

But thanks to science we know that there’s a special formula to calculate the optimal caffeine dosage.

Here’s the formula, but I’m going to break it down for you:

First, you’re going to choose a number between 1 to 3.

Pick one if you want to be in the lower end, two if you want to be in the middle, and three if you want to be in the higher end.

Then, you’re going to get your body weight in kilograms.

Once you pick one of those three numbers, and you have your body weight in kilograms, it’s time to use the formula.

Now, all there is left to do is multiply your body weight by the number you picked.

For example, I weigh 80kg, and I want to consume a considerable amount of caffeine.

All I’d do is multiply 80kg by 3, which is 240mg of caffeine.

Pretty simple, right?

Now, all there is left to do is to choose whether you want to drink those milligrams per sitting, or day. It is up to you and your necessities.

If you truly want and need more caffeine, drink more, but the dosage you just calculated it’s the optimal one, and more caffeine is probably an overkill.

Keep in mind that when consuming too much caffeine, you can get problems like headaches and anxiety when not getting the levels you normally get and at the time you usually get them.

The Timing

Now, timing is super important when it comes to using caffeine.

The most important fact about timing your caffeine consumption?

Avoid it 10 hours before bed when possible.

Emphasis is made on the “when possible” because some days it’s just not possible.

But the biggest problem by far is people who have become accustomed to drinking caffeine whenever they feel like it.

I can’t tell you the amounts of people I’ve seen in cafes or on the street drinking coffee at 7 pm.

Then you tell them how bad it is for their sleep and then they tell you how well they sleep even after drinking coffee.

Cope.

Because it doesn’t matter how you feel about it, it is a proven fact that caffeine consumption close to bedtime ruins your sleep depth.

You may not feel any adverse effects when doing it, but just know you’re ruining your chances of a good sleep.

If you can’t follow any of the other tips, make sure you follow this one.

No caffeine 10 hours before bed.

If you’re going to go to sleep at 10 pm, then stop any caffeine consumption after noon.

I know it’s not possible for everyone, but if you can, do it, trust me.

Now that we know about adenosine, and that we know that mornings are the best time of the day to consume caffeine, let’s talk about how to time your caffeine consumption in the mornings.

Most people wake up, go to the kitchen, and immediately jug down a cup of coffee.

Then they feel alert and start to wake up, but then, by 2 or 3 pm, their levels of energy go down significantly out of nowhere.

This is what we call an afternoon crash.

Let me explain:

When you wake up, depending on how well you slept the night before, your levels of adenosine can either be: (1) zeroed out, you slept pretty well and you feel alert. Or (2) you might still have a small level of adenosine bound in your receptors.

From what I explained before, we know that caffeine binds to those receptors, so adenosine can’t.

That’s why when people wake up and drink caffeine right away, they feel energized, they are blocking the adenosine.

But then in the afternoon, when caffeine starts to wear off a little bit, adenosine starts binding to those receptors again, causing you to feel tired out of nowhere.

There are two things you can do to prevent this crash:

1. If you can, get morning sunlight in your eyes in the first hour of waking up or as soon as possible. What this does is it increases your cortisol peak by 50%, which clears the adenosine present in your body.

2. Delay your caffeine intake from 90 to 120 minutes after waking up as much as you can.

Again, emphasis on the “as much as you can.”

There will be days when you just can’t do that.

For example, if you’re going to exercise in the morning, more specifically 90 minutes or less after waking up, then drinking caffeine is valid.

And if you REALLY need to consume caffeine after waking up, then you can split your caffeine intake in half.

Drink one half after waking up, and then the other half an hour later.

Jitteriness

One of the biggest problems for people who consume or want to consume caffeine is that they get jitters.

They drink it and it doesn’t take too long before they feel anxious and start jittering.

The fix?

Take Theanine along with your caffeine.

Theanine reduces the jitteriness and anxiety that can come with caffeine.

A couple of key points about Theanine:

• Don’t consume it prior to sleep.

• 200-400mg is the recommended amount to offset caffeine jitteriness.

• It peaks 1 hour later after consuming it, so you can take it about 15 minutes after taking caffeine.

• It has been shown to decrease anxiety and depression when being taken for 17 days straight.

How to Get The Biggest Effects & Abstinence

Consistent caffeine consumption by itself has a lot of benefits, but there are some occasions when you may want to get a lot more out of it.

Say for example you have an important exam, a sports competition, or you want to hit a PR, and you want to be as amped up as possible.

There are ways to achieve that, mainly with abstinence.

You see, your body gets used to caffeine, and its effect wears out in the long term. If you’re a consistent caffeine user, you’ve probably noticed it.

That’s where abstinence comes into play.

If you’ve been consuming caffeine consistently for the last 2 weeks and you want to see the biggest effects, you can do one of two things:

1. Restrain caffeine use for 5 days and then take it 90-120 minutes after waking up.

2. Take it on an empty stomach.

Either one of those two will make caffeine hit you harder than ever before.

How to Use It to Improve Cognitive and Physical Performance

Epinephrine, aka Adrenaline, is very related to cognitive tasks such as learning, or memorizing stuff. And surprisingly, it is also very related to caffeine.

You see, some things can spike your adrenaline.

Things like:

• Exercise.

• Cold Exposure.

• and of course, Caffeine.

When your adrenaline spikes, you retain more information.

That’s why in Medieval times they used to throw kids into cold water before learning, so they could retain more information.

Now, I’m not telling you to throw yourself into cold water before watching a Hamza video (although cold showers are helpful if you plan to do this deliberately.)

But as I mentioned before, caffeine achieves the same objective that cold exposure does, it spikes your adrenaline.

This is not me telling you to not do cold exposure, they both have different benefits. (I’m making a guide on that too btw.)

But if you want to use adrenaline to your advantage to learn more, it is far more practical to consume caffeine.

How?

Pretty simple. 30 minutes before any memory task such as studying or learning consume caffeine.

Another cool thing about caffeine is that it has reinforcing properties.

What does this mean?

It means that it can make you feel good about certain things subconsciously, altering your future behavior.

That’s why most people, even though the first time they tasted coffee disliked it, came around to like its flavor.

They even made an experiment where they gave nectar containing caffeine to bees, and they also gave them nectar without caffeine.

They found out bees liked the nectar with caffeine more than the one without it, not for its taste but for what it made them feel.

What happened to you and the bees was an unconscious process.

Because of that, you can use it to do what’s called “dopamine stacking.”

What you do is combine multiple stimuli in order to increase dopamine.

Imagine an activity you find hard to do (exercising, studying, working.) And you combine it with something that increases your dopamine, in this case, consuming caffeine.

What you’ll find is that you’ll increase your focus and enjoyment of that activity.

This can be done safely, but it shouldn’t become a habit.

This is because every time you increase your dopamine for certain activities, after the activity, your dopamine levels drop under baseline levels, making you crave more dopamine.

So make sure if you do it, don’t do it too often.

Conclusion

With everything I talked about here, you should have a better understanding of caffeine.

Not only about how it works, but also about the optimal dosages, the timing, and how to utilize it to its full potential.

I touched on a lot of stuff in this letter, so I hope you didn’t get overwhelmed.

So go out there, drink your coffee (using the tips I just gave you,) and crush your work.

If you liked this letter, please let me know so I can keep making content like this.

If you didn’t, also let me know what you didn’t like so I can improve my content for you.

In both cases, thank you for reading this letter. You’re a G.

PS - If you liked this, you’ll probably like the rest of my stuff, go check it out here.

That is all from me.

Tu amigo,
- Manuel