You’re probably feeling crummy from both the caffeine crash and the sleep deprivation!

Caffeine doesn’t get rid of the adenosine in your brain; it simply binds onto its receptors. So, when the caffeine is inevitably broken down, your body feels the pressure of all the adenosine you had at the time you drank coffee PLUS all the adenosine that has built up since then. It’s no wonder you feel incredibly sleepy when you experience a caffeine crash.

To add to that, by the time the caffeine wears off, your Process-C (drive to be awake) is likely at its lowest level and your Process-S (drive to be asleep) is at its peak. The great distance between those two processes make for a sleep deprived individual.

Borbély, A. A. (1982). A two process model of sleep regulation. Human Neurobiology, 1(3), 195-204. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/616860359?accountid=14496

Huang, Z., Qu, W., Eguchi, N., Chen, J., Schwarzschild, M. A., Fredholm, B. B., . . . Hayaishi, O. (2005). Adenosine A2A, but not A1, receptors mediate the arousal effect of caffeine. Nature Neuroscience, 8(7), 858-859. doi:10.1038/nn1491