Summary: A new study reveals that caffeine increases the complexity of brain activity during sleep, especially in younger adults, which can interrupt the brain’s ability to recover during the night. The researchers used EEG and IA to analyze the dream in 40 adults after caffeine or placebo intake, identifying less predictable brain signals and an increase in brain wave patterns shaped like vigil.
The caffeine altered the deep sleep rhythms by cushioning the Theta and Alfa waves while stimulating beta waves linked to alert. These effects were more pronounced in 20 and so many years, probably due to the differences related to age in the density of the adenosine receiver, which suggests that younger brains are more vulnerable to the night impact of caffeine.
Key facts:
Sleep irruption: caffeine reduced the rhythms of slow wave sleep and the greatest activity of the beta wave, keeping the brain in a more alert state during the night. Increase in criticism: caffeine pushed the brain to a higher state of complexity, the order of balance and chaos, even during sleep sensitivity.
Source: Montreal University
Caffeine is not only found in coffee, but also in tea, chocolate, energy drinks and many soft drinks, which makes it one of the most consumed psychoactive substances in the world.
In a study published in April in Nature Communications Biology, a team of researchers from the University of Montreal shed new light on how caffeine can modify sleep and influence the recovery of the brain, both physical and cognitive, overnight.
The investigation was directed by Philipp Thölke, a research apprentice of the Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory of UdeM (Coco Lab), and led by the director of the Karim Jerbi laboratory, professor and psychology researcher at the Mila-Quebec AI Institute.
Working with the professor of sleep psychology and aging Julie Carrier and her team at the Advanced Udem Research Center in Sleep Medicine, scientists used AI and Electroencephalography (EEG) to study the effect of caffeine on sleep.
They showed for the first time that caffeine increases the complexity of brain signals and improves the “criticality” of the brain during sleep. Interestingly, this was more pronounced in younger adults.
“Criticality describes a state of the brain that is balanced between order and chaos,” Jerbi said. “It’s like an orchestra: too quiet and nothing happens, too chaotic and there is cacophony.
“Criticality is the happy means where brain activity is organized and flexible. In this state, the brain works optimally: it can process information efficiently, adapt quickly, learn and make decisions with agility.”
Added yearlore: “Caffeine stimulates the brain and pushes it to a state of criticality, where it is more awake, alert and reagent, while this is useful during the day for concentration, this state could interfere with rest at night: the brain will not relax or recover properly.”
40 adults studied
To study how caffeine affects the sleeping brain, the carriers team recorded the night brain activity of 40 healthy adults who use an electroencephalogram. They compared the brain activity of each participant in two separate nights, one when they consumed caffeine capsules three hours and then one hour before bedtime, and another when they took a placebo at the same time.
“We use an advanced statistical analysis and artificial intelligence to identify subtle changes in neuronal activity,” said Thölke, first author of the study.
“The results showed that caffeine increased the complexity of brain signals, which reflects a more dynamic and less predictable neuronal activity, especially during the phase of the non -fast ocular movement (NREM) of the dream that is crucial for the consolidation of memory and cognitive recovery.”
The researchers also discovered surprising changes in the electrical rhythms of the brain during sleep: caffeine mitigated the slowest oscillations, such as Theta and Alfa waves, generally associated with a deep, restorative and stimulated beta wave activity, which is more common during surveillance and mental commitment.
“These changes suggest that even during sleep, the brain remains in a more activated and less restorative state under the influence of caffeine,” says Jerbi, who also possesses the president of Canada’s research in computational neuroscience and cognitive neuroimaging.
“This change in the rhythmic activity of the brain can help explain why caffeine affects the efficiency with which the brain recovers during the night, with possible consequences for memory processing.”
20 -year -old people more affected
The study also showed that the effects of caffeine on brain dynamics were significantly more pronounced in young adults between the ages of 20 and 27 years compared to medium -sized participants from 41 to 58 years, especially during ReM sleep, the phase associated with sleep.
Young adults showed a greater response to caffeine, probably due to a greater density of adenosine receptors in their brains. Adenosine is a molecule that gradually accumulates in the brain throughout the day, causing a feeling of fatigue.
“Adenosine receptors decrease naturally with age, reducing the capacity of caffeine to block them and improve the complexity of the brain, which can partly explain the reduced effect of the caffeine observed in medium -sized participants,” Carrier said.
And these age -related differences suggest that younger brains can be more susceptible to the stimulating effects of caffeine.
Given the generalized use of caffeine worldwide, especially as a daily remedy for fatigue, researchers emphasize the importance of understanding their complex effects on brain activity in different age groups and health conditions.
They add that more research is needed to clarify how these neuronal changes affect cognitive health and daily functioning, and to guide personalized recommendations for caffeine intake.
On this news of caffeine, sleep and research neuroscience
Author: Julie Gazaille
Source: Montreal University
Contact: Julie Gazaille – University of Montreal
Image: The image is accredited to Neuroscience News
Original research: open access.
“Caffeine induces increases dependent on age in the complexity of the brain and criticality during sleep” by Philipp Thölke et al. Communications biology
Abstract
Caffeine induces increases dependent on age in the complexity of the brain and criticality during sleep
Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive stimulant worldwide. However, important gaps persist in understanding their effects on the brain, especially during sleep.
We analyze sleep electroencephalography (EEG) in 40 subjects, contrasting 200 mg of caffeine against a placebo condition, using inferential statistics and automatic learning.
We discovered that the ingestion of caffeine led to an increase in the complexity of the brain, a widespread flattening of the slope 1/F of the power spectrum and a reduction in the long -range temporal correlations.
Being more prominent during the dream of non -violent eye movement (NREM), these results suggest that caffeine changes the brain towards a critical regime and a more diverse neuronal dynamic.
Interestingly, this was more pronounced in younger adults (20-27 years) compared to medium-sized participants (41-58 years) during the sleep of rapid ocular movement (REM), while no significant age effects were observed during NERM.
The interpretation of this data in the light of modeling and empirical work on the equilibrium measures of EEG excitation inhibition suggests that caffeine promotes a change in the dynamics of the brain towards greater neuronal excitement and a proximity closer to a critical regime, particularly during the NERM dream.
