why do I need coffee to function

There are a lot of components that make up your brain, and one of the most important is called the “cortical filter.”

This cortical filter works to enhance focus and attention by removing distracting inputs from the outside world. When you’re in an environment with consistent stimuli, like at home or work, those stimuli are filtered out.

However, when you leave that environment and enter another, different set of stimuli will be present. Your brain doesn’t know what is coming next so it has to prepare for every possibility. The more familiar you are with these new surroundings, the quicker your brain recognizes them as new and lessening its response time to filtering them out.

Consequently, this explains why it is easier to concentrate in familiar places rather than strange ones.

So if your workplace always has the same smells and sights, then it will be easier for you to focus there rather than at home where things seem to change daily.

How to Boost Focus in the Morning

A big part of the morning is getting your brain prepared for the day ahead. If you’re feeling like your focus is waning, or you feel distracted during the day, then it might be time to step away from your desk and into a different environment.

One way to prepare for a long workday is to make sure that you have a cup of coffee on hand.

Since we know that caffeine can boost focus and attention, it’s likely that with a nice cup of joe in hand, you will have an easier time staying focused throughout your day.

You can also try adjusting the lighting in your workspace to lower light levels so that it feels more comfortable and familiar.

Should you need help staying focused at work, then there are other methods available like meditation or listening to music.

Try a Dark-Roast Coffee

As you might expect, dark-roast coffee is known for its strong, bold flavors. It has a higher concentration of caffeine and lower concentrations of chlorogenic acids.

Because it’s so rich in flavor, the caffeine content of dark-roast coffee can be increased by as much as 30 percent without any change in caffeine levels.

Dark-roast coffee also contains more antioxidants than lighter roasts because it is made with highly oxidized beans that have undergone greater exposure to heat.

And because of these higher levels of antioxidants, dark roast coffees are typically associated with a lower risk for certain types of cancer.

Don’t Drink Coffee Before Bed

Coffee has a diuretic effect, meaning that it makes the body excrete more water. This can lead to dehydration and its effects on focus are minimal at best.

So, if you typically drink coffee before bed, then your sleep-deprived brain will be even more dehydrated than usual and won’t need caffeine to function as effectively as it would without it. Consequently, this explains why it is easier to concentrate in familiar places rather than strange ones.

So if your workplace always has the same smells and sights, then it will be easier for you to focus there rather than at home where things seem to change daily.

Make Green Tea an afternoon pick-me-up

The cortical filter is responsible for your brain filtering out distractions and stimuli in the environment. It’s why it’s easier to concentrate on a task when you’re surrounded by familiar settings.

But when you spend a lot of time away from home, that familiar setting can be an issue. It’s why working in an unfamiliar environment can cause difficulty concentrating rather than in your office where everything is familiar.

This is why coffee became so popular; it helped people focus and concentrate on their work when they were outside of their homes or office.

Flavoured Coffee Options

Flavored coffee is an easy way to keep your brain focused. Coffee is a stimulant that helps regulate mood and energy levels.

People who drink coffee tend to function better in environments that are familiar to them, so it makes sense to have a flavor profile that includes only flavors that they are familiar with. There’s no one right way to do this though.

You can try a few different flavored coffees without having to buy a whole new bag of beans at the end of the day.

This could include vanilla or cinnamon, but you could also try coffee with honey or vanilla cream. These flavors are all easily available and will keep your brain alert and focused on whatever you need it on.

Summing up

Having coffee helps to enhance focus. The more familiar your brain becomes with a certain environment, the better you can focus on it.

This is why we feel alert and focused when we are at work rather than at home where the environment changes so much.

FAQs

How does the brain filter out distractions?

The brain is primarily a filter that selectively discards information that is not relevant to goals or reward structures.

The cortical filter operates by interpreting the external world as containing four aspects: Stimuli (input), goals, the reward, and false alarms.

Stimuli can result in reward if they are associated with the goal or if they are unrelated to the goal. When aiming for a goal you notice any object that may impede progress and ignore it.

Stimuli may become important if they have personal relevance or if you have an emotional investment in them. False alarms are easy to recognize as irrelevant and are likely to be investigated for a reward and perform some task-related task.

The cortical filter is an automated function operated by feedback from the hippocampus and amygdala, but also affected by working memory capacity; an individual’s cortical filter will differ depending on cultural learning and experience.

How does the brain deal with new surroundings?

How does your brain deal with new surroundings? The ability to adapt to and adjust to new environments is an important trait in individuals and a vital step toward success.

People with good spatial awareness often find themselves in better jobs or with more successful relationships, both of which tend to be based on interaction with others.

People with a good spatial awareness are also more likely to be successful when traveling abroad as they will be better equipped to navigate unfamiliar territory effectively.

They will also be better prepared for emergency situations as they are likely to be aware of their surroundings.

Finally, individuals with good spatial awareness tend to have better long-term health outcomes, as stressful or potentially dangerous situations can be avoided if one is aware of the surrounding environment.

How does the brain prepare for new stimuli?

The brain is a very complex organ and has a lot of functions. Some of these functions are to maintain balance, register pain, process sensory information, regulate heart rate and blood pressure, and process moods.

The brain is also where memory is formed, thought to be the primary source of our knowledge. When we are in an environment with consistent stimuli, those stimuli are filtered out by the cortical filter.

That is because the cortical filter works to enhance focus and attention by removing distracting inputs from the outside world. When we leave that environment and enter another, different set of stimuli will be present.

Our brain doesn’t know what is coming next so it has to prepare for every possibility. The more familiar we become with these new surroundings, the quicker our brains will be able to adjust.