Coffee and tea drinks, the 2 most popular drinks after water, are known to contain caffeine. Many of you probably already know that caffeine can get rid of drowsiness. This is because caffeine has the effect of making blood vessels dilate.
But not everyone wants the presence of caffeine in their body at certain times. Drinking coffee at night causes problems in some people, namely insomnia or poor sleep quality. Have any of you experienced it?
How about green tea? Does drinking tea at night have a similar effect? The short answer is NO. Green tea is safer to consume at night because it is less likely to cause insomnia. Let us discuss the explanation below.
CAFEINE LEVELS
As a general rule of thumb, coffee’s caffeine content is higher than tea. So, judging from the point of view of caffeine levels, drinking the same amount, the risk of insomnia is greater when drinking coffee than drinking tea at night.
As additional information, Robusta coffee contains the highest caffeine compared to Arabica or other types of coffee. As for tea, the order of the highest caffeine content is black tea, oolong tea and green tea. There are also ‘teas’ that are caffeine-free because they don’t come from the Camellia sinensis tea plant, for example: barley tea, chamomile flowers, chrysanthemums, rooibos, gourd, rosella flowers and many more.
The method of brewing also affects the caffeine levels in the drink. Cold brew style usually contains higher caffeine because heat can break down caffeine, so cold temperatures make more caffeine last.
Green tea contains caffeine although the levels are the smallest compared to oolong tea, especially black tea, which is the tea with the highest caffeine content among all types of tea. So for ranking caffeine content, we can conclude the following, from highest to lowest:
robusta coffee> arabica coffee> black tea> oolong tea> green tea.
GREEN TEA RELAXATION EFFECT
There is one type of amino acid called L-theanine in green tea. Amino acids can provide a relaxing effect that can calm the mind and relieve stress. This substance is able to minimize the work of caffeine so that drinking green tea at night is safe and does not make it difficult to sleep.
The relaxing effect of L-theanine can even improve the quality of our sleep, because of its ability to induce alpha brain waves. What are alpha brain waves? These are the brain waves that arise when we relax, meditate, and also when we do creative things. Alpha brain waves are also found when we sleep into the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage, an important stage in the human sleep process.
SUGAR ‘DILARANG’ ATTENDED DRINKING GREEN TEA
Let’s say that you have tried drinking green tea at night but you still don’t get the benefits like the relaxing effects described above. Is there something wrong? Try to remember, drinking green tea mixed with sugar or not? If so, blame the sugar. It’s not the green tea’s fault. A few hours before bedtime, it’s best not to drink or eat anything sweet.
Finally, learn from the wisdom of the Japanese people who have been consuming green tea for almost a thousand years, drink green tea anytime anywhere, don’t add sugar. Make a habit of drinking plain green tea because sugar masks the true taste of green tea, causes a “stuck” / heavy “taste on the tongue, and has the potential to invite diabetes and obesity if consumed in excess.
