We’ve all seen energy drinks advertised on social media, by influencers, and even by athletes.

And the number of people drinking these on an almost daily basis has been growing for years.

But the effect these energy drinks, as well as high levels of coffee have on our bodies, our health, our sleep, our stress levels, our mood, our hormones, and our ability to lose body fat and gain lean muscle is much more than most people think.

These energy drinks have high amounts of caffeine, sugars, and processed sugars, often under the guise of several different ingredients so you don’t see quite how much is in there.

While they may list 160 mg of caffeine as an ingredient, other ingredients listed supply even more caffeine and other types of stimulants.

How much stimulant is actually in them? I don’t know. But much more than anyone needs, especially when they’ve usually already had a couple cups of coffee in the morning.

And, while having one once, or very infrequently, may not be too bad, when continued over time, these can have a very significant impact on our long-term health, our aging, and our body’s ability to function at optimal levels.

Beyond this, many people who drink these are in their teens or twenties, when their bodies are still developing and growing, and the damage they do here can be far worse, leading to acute or even chronic health issues in the future.

This may seem small, but due to their prevalence and availability now, it’s very important.

In this article we cover how this works, and even go into the sleep/wake cycle, what occurs there, and how this affects it.

Let's dive in.

Energy Drinks Don’t Give Us Energy — They Take It Away

Sure, they’re loaded with sugar, so that’s an energy source.

But a very short-lived one.

But, as it’s a high amount of very processed sugar, it raises cortisol levels very high, which then saps our energy until we get our next “fix.”

This is because these drinks operate by ransacking our adrenaline stores, forcing our body to produce more adrenaline and cortisol to keep us awake, alert and active.

Until we get the let down or we crash.

A coffee or two in the morning gives us a little caffeine, comparatively. But these drinks give us high amounts of caffeine, taurine, and other stimulants our bodies were never meant to consume.

And they can’t handle them.

At first, most people consistently drinking energy drinks can become very lethargic after they wear off and before the next one. And many can remain fairly slim, often not eating as much as they normally would.

But, after a while, with the affect it has on their cortisol levels, adrenal glands and insulin, which then affects our neurotransmitter levels, they can start to feel lethargic all the time, while at the same time having trouble sleeping well at night.

They can begin to feel more anxious or depressed and can start over-eating, craving sugary foods that lead to weight gain.

Due to lack of sleep, and often a poor diet, their body isn't getting what it needs to fully recover from the day’s activity.

Stress levels rise, they’re too tired to get work done, anxiety levels rise, depression can set in, and they can start having aches in their body they didn’t have before.

This is high cortisol levels, hormones out of balance and an inability to get deep sleep that allows for daily recovery, leaving micro-injuries from daily activity piling up internally.

It also strips our B vitamins, leaving us with very low levels of vitamin B1, which can cause constant mental chatter or a mind that “just won’t turn off”.

And they can be quite addictive.

But it goes much deeper.

To understand, we ned to look at how our body not only falls asleep, but how it starts preparing for sleep in the latter half of the day.

How Sleep Occurs: The Sleep/Wake Cycle

There is a molecule called Adenosine. We’ve talked about Adenosine Triphosphate, or ATP. It’s an energy source created within our cells and used by our cells. In fact, it’s the only energy our body actually runs on.

Our cells take in oxygen plus sugar or amino acids, or fats, and specific organelles within the cell, called mitochondria, combine them to form ATP, the energy which our cells and our whole body uses.

But that’s Adenosine Triphoshate. Now we’re talking about just Adenosine.

Adenosine is a byproduct of many cellular processes, including the breakdown of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) after it’s been used for energy.

Here’s how it works:

During the day your cells make Adenosine Triphosphate as energy.

The cells then use this energy, which releases the Adenosine.

The Adenosine then goes to the brain where its starts accumulating.

Now, Adenosine works as a neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger in the brain. As its levels increase, adenosine binds to what are called adenosine receptors (receivers).

This accumulation then leads to a decrease in the release of specific neurotransmitters that promote wakefulness and arousal, as well as a decrease in adrenaline, a hormone which tells your body to make energy and be awake.

Instead, this Adenosine build-up leads to the release of GABA and serotonin, neurotransmitters which calm us, de-stress us, bring on drowsiness, and allow us to go to sleep.

Adenosine actually helps you calm down, brings on sleep, and helps you maintain stable sleep.

It suppresses energy creation and use, and wakefulness.

Then, while you sleep, your body has a chance to clear adenosine from the brain, which is part of why you wake up feeling refreshed and alert.

So, to recap, your cells make energy which they then use, and this releases adenosine.

This adenosine builds up in the brain gradually during the day, surrounding the adenosine receptors and gradually reducing adrenaline, cortisol and energy production.

Then, by the end of the day, your body is ready for good deep sleep that it can maintain through the night until it’s time to get up again, at which point all of the adenosine is cleared out, allowing us to wake up again.

So what do energy drinks and caffeine do?

How Energy Drinks & High Caffeine Inhibit Sleep

The high levels of stimulants in these energy drinks block our adenosine receptors so that when adenosine is released it can’t be seen by the receptors. This then causes adrenaline to continue to be released in the later part of the day and at night, so energy keeps being created and released and we stay awake and alert.

This also means GABA and serotonin aren't released, or nearly as much, as it’s the adenosine that triggers their release. So now the body doesn't gradually calm down to sleep at night.

Now, this happens with a cup of coffee in the morning. That caffeine blocks some of the adenosine receptors so more adrenaline is being released.

But that’s just a small amount.

What about someone who has 2-3 cups of coffee in the morning, or 5, then a can or two of energy drinks later on in the day or even in the evening?

How is their sleep going to be?

How will they feel in the morning and how many more energy drinks will they need to get them through the next day, or the next?

You see, once the effects of the energy drink wear off, the crash comes.

They go from being super alert to… super not. Not alert, not fully awake, not high energy, not healthy, and often not thinking straight.

As these also affect the nervous system, which ties into the heart, we can start to see heart palpitations, panic attacks, and more.

Heart Rate Variation (HRV) decreases (bad) and Resting Heart Rate (RHR) increases or stays high (also bad).

They also put stress on the kidneys and liver due to the toxins that have to be filtered out.

Beyond this, over time they can lower our immune function, cause slower recoveries, disrupt our hormones and gut bacteria, affect our mood and overall body function, and, of course, with the high amount of straight or processed sugars, they can cause significant weight gain while at the same time gradually slowing our metabolism so it’s harder to lose that weight afterwards.

Not that we’d have the energy to do so at that point.

And that takes us to the last issue they cause: adrenal fatigue.

ENERGY DRINKS CAUSE ADRENAL FATIGUE

As we covered above, Adenosine is released throughout the day, gradually building up in the brain and gradually suppressing energy creation and use so that by the end of the day we’re tired and ready for a good night’s sleep.

But what is this adenosine actually suppressing? The release of adrenaline.

It’s adrenaline and cortisol that are released in the morning to wake you up.

And they’re released because by that point the adenosine is cleared out of the brain and no longer suppressing their release.

It’s adrenaline that caffeine and sugar stimulate. They stimulate its release because it then instructs the cells to start making energy and the nervous system to go into action.

But when these high amounts of caffeine and stimulants are coming throughout the day, this adrenaline is constantly being released and your body can get sick of it. Or become unable to keep up with it.

And it can start producing less and less adrenaline.

And you need this adrenaline to tell your cells to make and use energy.

So overall energy levels start going down and you need more energy drinks to keep them up.

And then more.

And more.

Until they stop helping you at all because there is too little adrenaline to tell our cells to make energy.

COMING OFF OF ENERGY DRINKS

When coming off energy drinks we can first experience very low energy levels, and even body aches. Even more than we had before we came off if we already had these.

But this isn’t our energy levels going down further. This is the false sense of energy going away and the numbness to how our body actually feels coming off.

During this time, protein is key, along with vitamin replenishment for cellular repair.

If one has been drinking energy drinks or high amounts of coffee daily for months or years, this recovery period can take a few weeks on its own, if not months.

During this time it’s important to keep levels of sugar low and prioritize fats and essential amino acids.

This is because most people on continuous energy drinks can start to become insulin resistant due to the high amounts of processed sugars, and we need to get them through this.

Good, deep sleep is also essential, as this is when the body is able to use the amino acids to recover, and when hormones are able to start balancing again.

Magnesium is also very important during this time as it helps calm the nervous system, and these energy drinks have been depleting magnesium levels in the body.

Combined with daily walks, our energy levels can start to rise again, we become more alert — without the drink to “help” us, sleep evens out, mood evens out, and our overall health begins to rise again.

If you have been drinking energy drinks on a regular basis, I’d highly recommend you stop, and take some time for recovery.

With proper nutrition and sleep you’ll have more than enough energy and mental clarity. And you’ll also have much higher levels of health and longevity.

And if you want to kickstart better sleep and recovery now, read the last section of this article.

I highly recommend it.