Adenosine, Caffeine and Sleep

Coffee keeps me awake but how? Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas may have found out the reason. In the Biocompare article, Overworked Brains Release Adenosine To Slow Cells, Trigger Sleep, UT Southwestern Researchers Find, a biochemcial explanation may be at hand. When the brain is hard at work a substance known as adenosine is released. Adenosine is a nucleoside; an essential biochemical found in DNA and in an essential energy conferring compound known as adenosine triposphate. Adenosine is also used in other bodily functions.

Caffeine has the capacity to block adenosine and its sleep inducing effects. The implications for insomnia and other sleep disorders is promising although there may be much more to these problems than adenosine. As the article states: "Coffee and tea are blocking the link between the prolonged neural activity of waking and increased levels of adenosine in cells, which is why they prevent us from getting drowsy."