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Assuming you take $\pu{200mg}$ of caffeine, it's half life is roughly 6 hours. So after 6 hours there should still be $\pu{100mg}$ of caffeine in your body.

Then why is it generally said that after six hours caffeine's effect should wear off? Shouldn't it only be diminished since there is still $\pu{100mg}$ of caffeine in your body?

Gaurang Tandon
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Ilan Kleiman
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    You should probably ask this on Biology.SE I think. Probably not many chemists know the exact mechanism by which caffeine stimulates the human body to know why the effects wear off over time (I certainly don't). My guess is that it has something to do with diminished signaling of some hormone (?) that doesn't signal linearly with concentration of caffeine. – jheindel Nov 03 '16 at 23:20
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    Perhaps see the caffeine wikipedia page, and read the sections titled pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. These contain the information needed probably, but understanding that information to be able to answer your question is beyond me. – jheindel Nov 03 '16 at 23:25

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Personal experience: Some years ago, I mowed our lawn on a hot summer day. It took about 2 hours, and I sweated up a storm. To compensate, every 20 minutes or so, I came into the house and swigged down some Pepsi Cola. After I was finished, I noticed that the 2 liter bottle of Pepsi was also finished, and I was tired, so I sat down.

With nothing else going on, I noted that my heart was skipping beats. 1,2,3,skip. 1,2,3,skip. Extra systole. Nothing to get excited about. But never this skippy. So I listened, and checked, and after about 15 minutes, I got 1,2,3,4,skip. 1,2,3,4,skip. Interesting. And about every 15 minutes, my heart would go another beat before the skip. It finally got out to 14 before skipping, then went all crazy: 12, 17, 20, then finally stopped skipping.

It took 2 hours to consume the Pepsi, and about 4 hours to overcome the observable effects of the caffeine. There is certainly a non-linearity involved with the excretion and with the effect of the caffeine on my heart, but yeah, the half life says something, but there is a diminution of effect, not a go/no go.

And I never again drank that much caffeinated beverage all at once.

James Gaidis
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