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Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: thedoc on 06/10/2013 23:19:47

Title: Why does coffee wake you up?
Post by: thedoc on 06/10/2013 23:19:47

Why is coffee so wonderful at giving a boost?
Asked by David Bailey


                                        Visit the webpage for the podcast in which this question is answered. (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/naked-scientists/show/20131001-1/)

[chapter podcast=1000514 track=13.10.01/Naked_Scientists_Show_13.10.01_1001394.mp3](https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenakedscientists.com%2FHTML%2Ftypo3conf%2Fext%2Fnaksci_podcast%2Fgnome-settings-sound.gif&hash=f2b0d108dc173aeaa367f8db2e2171bd)  ...or Listen to the Answer[/chapter] or [download as MP3] (http://nakeddiscovery.com/downloads/split_individual/13.10.01/Naked_Scientists_Show_13.10.01_1001394.mp3)

Title: Why does coffee wake you up?
Post by: thedoc on 06/10/2013 23:19:47

We answered this question on the show...

Jason Rihel - So, that is because of what's in coffee which is caffeine and caffeine is an [img float=right]/forum/copies/RTEmagicC_800px-A_small_cup_of_coffee_01.JPG.jpg[/img]adenosine receptor antagonist.
 So, in order to understand how this works, one concept for the timer for what maintains wakefulness is thought to be in fact adenosine which is a small molecule that gets progressively secreted in the brain and builds up during wakefulness.
In certain areas of the brain, it’s thought that adenosine is triggering, “Hey, it’s time to go to sleep now.” Caffeine is thought to directly interfere with that signal that it’s time to go to sleep and give in fact a boost to wakefulness.