alt Hacker News> Stay up late because I’m wired on caffeine and dopamine from scrolling.
I wish people didn't overuse certain terms. Dopamine has a half life of 2 minutes in the body. It can't possibly keep you up at night.
It's just the caffeine, which in turn has a half-life of several hours. Also below a certain level it's eliminated approximately exponentially, so there's a long tail of residual caffeine.
Replies
MrOrelliOReilly • today at 9:37 AM
> It’s just the caffeine
Fair enough if the use of “dopamine” is imprecise, but excessive screen time / doomscrolling / shitposting is definitely enough to wire you awake on its own, without caffeine.
fragmede • today at 9:45 AM
> Dopamine has a half life of 2 minutes in the body.
That's for IV dopamine, used in extreme circumstances. Natural dopamine lasts shorter than that!
> Dopamine has a half life of 2 minutes in the body.
May be true.
But doing "rewarding" work encourages your body to emit more dopamine. Some people call it "the flow", others "hyperfocus", but it is a constant stream of dopamine that keeps you doing what you currently do. And you can interfere with the emittance and absorbtion by using caffeine.