“Why does coffee make me feel like passing out?” You may ask. Some people experience this intense feeling of fatigue and lightheadedness after drinking coffee. This is a symptom of caffeine’s impact on your cardiovascular system. The feeling can last from a few minutes to many hours.
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Why Does Coffee Make Me Feel Like Passing Out?
Coffee can make you feel like passing out because it affects your heart rate and blood pressure. When you drink coffee, your body produces more adrenaline, raising your blood pressure and heart rate. This causes the blood vessels to constrict, which lowers the blood flow to your brain. If this decrease in blood supply becomes severe, you might feel dizzy or faint.
Coffee also has a diuretic effect (it makes you urinate). Dehydration can worsen these symptoms if you’re not replacing fluids when drinking coffee. In addition to being dehydrated from coffee consumption, there are a few other reasons why someone might pass out after coffee:
Vasovagal Syncope After Coffee
The most common form of fainting, vasovagal syncope, refers to when blood vessels in your legs dilate and your heart rate slows or speeds up rapidly. This interferes with the blood flow rate to the brain.
Some people are more likely to experience vasovagal syncope than others—it’s estimated that about 3% of the population has it.
How Does Caffeine Trigger Fainting?
There are two ways. It can raise your heart rate and reduce blood flow to the brain. Caffeine might also make you sweat or feel nauseous if it affects how much fluid is in your system (increasing urine production).
If this happens while standing up with raised blood sugar levels after eating a sugary snack or drinking alcohol on an empty stomach, dizziness or lightheadedness may also occur! The effects of caffeine last longer than expected because they’re enhanced by dehydration.
What About Caffeine Sensitivity?
Caffeine sensitivity is a genetic trait that affects how your body reacts to caffeine, the main ingredient in coffee. Even small amounts of caffeine can make you feel jittery, nauseous, and anxious if you have this trait. If you get these symptoms, it may be time to cut back on your daily cup of Joe.
How to Reduce Dizziness After Coffee
The ideal amount of caffeine for someone with moderate sensitivity levels ranges between 200-300 mg per day (roughly equivalent to two 8 oz cups). You can also avoid dizziness or fainting after coffee using the below tips:
Have Breakfast Before Coffee
Eating a good breakfast is essential to your health, although it’s also important to eat well before drinking coffee. A healthy meal can give you the energy and focus needed to make it through the day. You don’t have to eat a lot. Try eating something like oatmeal or eggs with toast.
Drink Plenty of Water
While there are no proven studies to show that drinking water before, during, and after drinking coffee can help reduce the negative effects of caffeine on your body, it certainly won’t hurt. If you drink lots of coffee without replenishing yourself with enough water, dehydration will occur, leading to headaches and fatigue.
Limit Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol can also exacerbate how caffeine makes you feel dizzy because it lowers blood pressure and can cause low blood sugar, dehydration, or vasovagal syncope. It’s not uncommon for people who drink too much alcohol to pass out after taking coffee.
Get Enough Sleep
The first rule for avoiding the caffeine crash is not to consume caffeine late in the day. Caffeine stays in your system for about six hours, so if you drink your coffee at noon, it will still be in your body when it’s time for bed at 10 p.m. Even if you don’t normally feel the effects of a cup of coffee during the day, drinking one with dinner could still give you trouble falling asleep.
Related Questions
Can Coffee Cause Fatigue?
Coffee can cause fatigue because caffeine causes your blood pressure to increase, leading to various side effects, including exhaustion. Although if you’re in good health and go easy on sugar, it’s unlikely that coffee will cause you to feel tired.
Why Does Coffee Make Me Nauseous and Shaky?
Coffee makes you feel nauseous and shaky because it contains caffeine, which stimulates the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) and increases heart rate and blood pressure. This can make you feel jittery or sick in some cases — although there’s no reason for alarm.
Your body needs time to adjust to all those new chemicals! If these symptoms persist after a couple of weeks of drinking coffee regularly, then see your doctor rule out other causes, like anxiety or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
Conclusion
Coffee can make you feel like passing out by affecting your heart rate and blood pressure. Excessive consumption of coffee can also cause anxiety. If you are experiencing any significant reaction to your coffee, and it’s not a positive one, take less of it. That’s probably the easiest solution to ensure that coffee doesn’t ruin your day.
