Sleep is when your body is in it’s best state to get you toned and strong. During sleep your body will be driving energy into repair and rebuild itself to be healthier and more fit.
That’s why getting enough high-quality sleep each night is absolutely crucial to getting the most out of your workouts and achieving your long-term goals.
While small amounts of caffeine early in the day is generally not a problem, research has shown that having 400mg up to 6 hours from bedtime can still reduce sleep by an average of 1 hour.
Losing 1 hour or more of sleep a night is a massive amount when it comes to recovery.
If you’re constantly consuming caffeine in coffee or other energy drinks 2-3 times a day or more, it’s a sign that your body isn’t producing the energy that you need by itself.
This is often a reflection that your body has been under too much chronic stress and its down regulated your energy production in an effort to conserve more of it.
One of the ways the body adapts to chronic stress is turning down the sympathetic system and turning up the parasympathetic system.
In other words, this is your body trying to get you to move less so it can recover more.
Overriding this push by the body for recovery by using stimulants just covers up the symptom and slows your recovery down even more by impairing sleep.
If you feel like you can’t get through the day without using caffeine, listen to what your body is telling you.
Focus on reducing mental stress and getting enough sleep, while reducing your intensity and putting more energy into active recovery.