My Story - Dr Prabath

By Dr. Prabath, Founder of Millionaire Health Habits & Owner of Unique Medical Cranbourne, Australia

Live Richer in Every Way

By Dr prabath

Sleep pressure - Adenosine

Now that you are experts on sleep and know about circadian rhythm and the sleep hormone Melatonin, firing the gun for the Sleep Race, let’s talk about the chemical that starts building up the moment we wake up, Adenosine

I want my readers to imagine an empty bottle in the morning, which starts to fill up when you wake up with the most powerful sleep chemical ever designed, Adenosine. Or imagine you start drinking a small amount of alcohol the moment you wake up! Don’t try this at home, please!

Adenosine is a byproduct of cellular energy consumption – it accumulates in the brain as neurons burn through adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of cells, during wakefulness. The longer you stay awake, the more adenosine builds up in specific brain regions, particularly in areas involved in wakefulness, such as the basal forebrain. In a way, Adenosine is like the toxic waste product of a factory, and when the levels are too dangerous, the factory needs to close down for safety, just like you need to sleep

This adenosine accumulation increases sleep pressure, also called homeostatic sleep drive, which signals your brain that it’s time to rest. Adenosine exerts its effects by binding to specific receptors on neurons – adenosine receptors (A1 and A2A types) – which inhibit neural activity and induce eventual sleep onset.

When you finally fall asleep, the brain begins clearing out adenosine, reducing the accumulated sleep pressure. This clearing process happens mostly during deep, slow-wave sleep, waking you up refreshed and alert. Imagine my factory analogy and waste product being removed, and deep sleep as a flushing mechanism, removing the waste products effectively

Interestingly, caffeine works by blocking adenosine receptors, particularly the A2A subtype. This prevents adenosine from binding and exerting its sleep-promoting effects, temporarily making you feel more awake and disrupting natural sleep pressure buildup. Caffeine is like a toilet blocker, not allowing poo to get flushed!

So, adenosine is a crucial chemical messenger linking prolonged brain activity to the biological need for sleep, functioning as a central wakefulness and restorative rest.

If we use the analogy of an empty water bottle in the morning and filling up gradually, when the bottle is full, that’s the maximum sleep pressure. That’s the time at night when you are trying to stay awake, and you keep nodding off. The water bottle starts to empty the moment you fall asleep, and the most effective sleep phase is deep sleep in clearing Adenosine. So if you sleep well and remain in deep sleep, when you wake up, the water bottle should be empty, but if you have conditions like obstructive sleep apnea, when you wake up, the bottle would still be half full, and you will feel sleepy in the morning

Practical tips

Never drink coffee around eight hours before sleep. Drinking coffee prevents Adenosine from binding properly to its receptors, preventing you from getting deep sleep, and you wake up with plenty of Adenosine remaining, ie, the bottle is still not empty in the morning.

Keep a consistent wake-up and sleep time to allow plenty of Adenosine to build up

Avoid long naps before bedtime, which is like emptying the bottle that was almost full and then you have to wait a long time again till the bottle gets full again. Keep naps under 20 minutes!

Do activities that use your brain at nighttime rather than mindless activities that don’t use brain power. Remember my analogy about the factory? The more complex the factory, the more toxic byproducts it produces. Just like that, the harder and longer the brain and body work, the more it produces Adenosine

Do a small physical activity in the evening to produce Adenosine like a short walk or a run

My Story - Dr Prabath

Live Richer in Every Way

Sleep pressure - Adenosine

Practical tips

So with that, I have to rush to do my morning routine as I am late for work!

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