Energy drinks are meant to give you a boost of energy. To help you feel awake, alert, and raring to go. This is why we often look for the strongest energy drinks, the ones that give us the biggest caffeine hit. Yet, energy drinks sometimes don’t help at all. In fact, sometimes after I chuck a rockstar, I just kind of want to go to sleep. So why do energy drinks make me tired?
So, what’s going on? Obviously you’re not alone here. It’s a common thing, and there are a few possible reasons for this effect. Most are linked to the combination of caffeine and sugar found in commercial energy drinks. But, you will sometimes see an energy crash even with sugar free energy drinks.
Why Do Energy Drinks Make Me Tired?
Caffeine Can Lead To An Adenosine Buildup
Adenosine is an important compound that our bodies naturally produce. Adenosine promotes sleep and some of caffeine’s stimulant effect comes from blocking our adenosine receptors.
This is a useful effect, helping us to feel energized when we need it the most.
However, our bodies don’t actually stop producing adenosine. The caffeine just blocks the receptors. So, the adenosine starts to build up. When the caffeine wears off, we feel the effects from the adenosine again. Because the compound has built up, you often end up feeling suddenly sleepy.
If your caffeine tolerance is high, it mightn’t take long for the caffeine to wear off and the sleepiness to come into play. Sometimes you might barely feel the energy hit at all.
So, if you normally drink four or five cups of coffee a day, your energy drink probably won’t have much effect at all.
Adenosine Production May Be Increased
Caffeine disrupts natural processes in our bodies, which can lead to a push back. So, to counter the adenosine-inhibiting effect of caffeine, we start to produce more adenosine.
Sometimes this means we have even more adenosine after drinking an energy drink than we did beforehand – leading to more sleepiness.
This effect only gets stronger as your caffeine tolerance increases. You can’t get around it by simply consuming more caffeine either, as the more caffeine you have, the more your tolerance will increase.
The Sugar Content
We can’t forget about the sugar in energy drinks, either. Sugar gives you a natural energy boost too, but this never lasts long.
Many people find that once the initial boost has passed, they end up feeling lethargic. This effect may be partly due to the neurotransmitter orexin, which decreases when your blood sugar kicks up suddenly.
Orexin is an important aspect of our sleep-wake cycles, so a reduction in orexin quickly makes us feel sleepy.
The combined effect on adenosine and orexin is particularly significant, as we get a double hit of sleepiness once the energy buzz has worn off. And, if your caffeine tolerance is high or you’re already very tired, the initial energy buzz may be minimal.
In that situation, is the energy drink even worth it?
They May Dehydrate You
Being dehydrated affects your body in countless ways, making it hard to function well. This effect extends to your energy levels, where not getting enough water is likely to make you feel fatigued and listless.
Energy drinks can be a problem here, as caffeine has a dehydrating effect.
You will often get a net gain of liquid from an energy drink. However, this equation changes for highly concentrated energy drinks – particularly energy shots.
Plus, many of us aren’t drinking enough water as it is, which just makes everything worse.
You’re Too Tired
Sometimes energy drinks don’t work like you want because you’re already too tired. So, if you’re using energy drinks to try and push yourself past this last deadline or to stay awake till 3 am, you might find that they simply don’t work.
After all, there’s only so much that caffeine can do. If you’re physically exhausted, then an energy drink mightn’t do much at all.
This effect may also make you even more aware of your tiredness.
Taurine May Have An Unexpected Effect
Some energy drinks, like Red Bull, use taurine as an additional stimulant. This is a free form amino acid that can be found in food, is produced by our bodies, and is also manufactured synthetically.
Evidence for the effects of taurine is surprisingly mixed. There’s a decent chance that while taurine stimulates the brain, it has a depressant effect on the central nervous system. If this is the case, taurine may help to calm you down, rather than boost you.
This effect could easily make you sleepy, especially if you were already tired before having the energy drink.
The Effects Add Up
We’ve talked about a few factors here, including the way caffeine affects adenosine and orexin, the potential for dehydration, the role of taurine, and the fact that you might actually need rest.
These are all important ways that energy drinks influence your tiredness – and they’re not mutually exclusive. Instead, you’ll often get all of them hitting at once.
Things get even worse if you strongly rely on caffeine to keep yourself awake and alert. If you do so, you probably have a very high caffeine tolerance and the energy drinks aren’t helping matters much at all.
You may be putting your health at risk too.
How To Make Energy Drinks More Effective
So then, energy drinks can clearly make you sleepy. Sometimes the effects are quite extreme.
The simplest answer is to avoid energy drinks entirely and boost your energy in other ways. But, sometimes you really do need a drink to kick you into high gear. That brings us to the next question, how do you decrease the sleepiness effect and make your energy drinks useful again?
Decrease Your Caffeine Intake
Energy drinks are most effective when your caffeine tolerance is low.
If energy drinks are regularly making you tired, then it might be time to cut down on caffeine. This could include drinking less coffee during the day and only relying on energy drinks occasionally.
Keep an eye out for hidden sources of caffeine too, as most of us are consuming more caffeine than we realize.
Cutting down caffeine has two big effects. First, it helps to lower your tolerance, so when you do consume caffeine, the effects should be stronger.
Second, it gives you the chance to focus more on natural ways to improve your energy. After all, you shouldn’t need energy drinks regularly just to function. If you do, it’s a sure sign that something needs fixing.
Look For Healthier Energy Drinks
Energy drinks aren’t all the same. Some are loaded with artificial colors and additives, not to mention a ton of sugar.
Natural products tend to be healthier. Plus, you have a better sense of what’s in them and their quality.
This could include focusing on sugar free energy drinks, particularly those that use natural sweeteners. Such energy drinks allow you to avoid the peaks and dips in your blood sugar levels, which should lead to a more consistent energy effect.
You might also look for energy drinks that just use caffeine for energy, rather than adding ingredients like taurine and guarana. While those additions are meant to boost your energy levels – there’s a lot we don’t know about them.
Get Enough Sleep
Energy drinks are useful for a boost, but they’re never going to replace a full night’s sleep. If you consistently have inadequate sleep, your energy will suffer. There’s no way around that,
To get the most out of your energy drinks, you need to make sure that you’re actually well-rested. This could even involve having naps during the day, especially if your sleep gets disrupted at night.
Work On Staying Healthy
Sleep isn’t all we need to stay energized. There are other important things too, starting with food. If you’re not getting enough nutrients in your diet, then your body can’t produce energy as it needs and your health starts to suffer.
Similarly, your fluid intake has a surprisingly large effect on your energy levels. Getting enough water isn’t difficult to do. Try keeping a bottle of water next to you and drinking from it regularly.
Exercise helps too. Staying active and physically fit is always a good thing for energy.
In fact, if you’re sleepy, you might find that going for a run actually boosts your energy more than having an energy drink.
Decrease Your Stress
It also helps to find ways to lower your stress. Consistent stress and pressure can have all types of negative effects on health and energy.
If this applies to you, then you’re probably feeling worn down a lot of the time – and energy drinks aren’t likely to help much at all.
Use Caffeine As A Last Resort
One of the most powerful approaches is to turn to energy drinks last. This means trying every other approach to boost your energy first.
Exercising, having something to eat, drinking water, or even just getting up and stretching are often enough to make you feel more awake and energized. You might even take a 20-minute nap (set a timer!), then get up, jump around a bit, and start working again.
Using these as first steps should help you to rely on energy drinks less. So, if you do have an energy drink, the effects should be more substantial.
Don’t Drink More
The default ‘solution’ to sleepiness from energy drinks is to rely on stronger energy drinks or increase your intake. For example, some people end up drinking two full cans of Monster (or even more) one after the other, to try and wake themselves up.
Please don’t do this.
For one thing, the approach is dangerous. High caffeine intake can cause some serious problems, like increasing anxiety, raising your heart rate, promoting insomnia, giving you headaches, and increasing blood pressure.
Drinking more caffeine won’t help anyway. You’re just amplifying the issues we’ve already talked about and increasing your caffeine tolerance.
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