There is a "caffeine counteractor" in tea, which makes it less likely for you to suffer from insomnia!

Have you ever been confused about this - both beverages contain caffeine, why is it less likely to cause insomnia when drinking tea than when drinking coffee?

In addition to the difference in caffeine content, a component in tea may also help - theanine.

Theanine structure diagram

• Theanine

Theanine is a natural amino acid in tea leaves, which can partially offset the bitterness brought by caffeine, add freshness and sweetness to tea, and make the tea flavor better. At the same time, it also has a certain counteracting effect on the insomnia side effects caused by caffeine.

Theanine reduces the adenosine receptor blocking effect brought by caffeine by increasing the level of inhibitory neurotransmitters such as γ-aminobutyric acid and glycine, thereby reducing the overexcitement of the central nervous system.

• Theanine + caffeine

The effects of insomnia are offset

There is a small experiment in this regard:

The researchers found some healthy young women, asked them to drink the test drink at 22:50, and then wear sleep monitoring equipment and fall asleep normally.

Several test beverages contain:

1. Theanine (50 mg)
2. Caffeine (30 mg)
3. Theanine (50 mg) + caffeine (30 mg)
4. Placebo group for control

The results show that compared with the placebo group, the number of short wake-ups after falling asleep in the caffeine group was significantly higher than that in the placebo group, while there was no significant difference between the theanine group + caffeine group and the placebo group.

In other words, theanine can reduce the adverse effects of caffeine on sleep quality.

But of course, this also depends on the actual ratio of theanine to caffeine in the tea you drink. If theanine is too little and the caffeine is too much, it will not work.

• Which teas have more theanine?

The content of theanine is related to the season of tea picking, environmental conditions and processing technology. Since theanine will be degraded during the fermentation process, the content of theanine is generally yellow tea, white tea, green tea > oolong tea > black tea, dark tea.

The highest content of theanine in a specific variety of yellow tea is 25-30 mg per gram of tea leaves, while the average green tea can reach 10-20 mg per gram of tea leaves, and the lowest content of black tea may be less than 5 mg per gram of tea leaves [2-4].

As for the caffeine content, there is no fixed pattern found between different teas, and the content difference is not large. For example, the caffeine content of six different fermentation degrees of tea produced in the same origin in Yunnan is between 4.5-6.7 mg per gram of tea leaves.

Theoretically, white tea, yellow tea, and green tea may not be as likely to cause insomnia as black tea and black tea. (This is only theoretically speaking, the specific situation is more complicated)

• It is also related to how you brew

It is worth mentioning that the content of tea soup is also related to how you brew it.

When the water temperature is high and the soaking time is long, a large amount of caffeine will enter the tea soup, while when cold brewing at low temperature, less caffeine will be brewed and more theanine will be brewed.