--- title: Video: This Is How Caffeine Actually Effects Your Brain Chemistry description: This science video explains the chemistry of caffeine as it exists in coffee and its impact on the brain. canonical: https://time.com/64985/how-caffeine-affects-brain/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-16T17:00:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:50.699Z og:title: How Caffeine Affects Your Brain og:description: The science behind America's favorite drug og:url: https://time.com/64985/how-caffeine-affects-brain/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Caffeine Affects Your Brain twitter:description: The science behind America's favorite drug twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Is How Caffeine Actually Affects Your Brain by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Apr 16, 2014 5:00 PM UTC by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Apr 16, 2014 5:00 PM UTC Over [83 percent](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-22/coffee-consumption-increases-in-u-s-association-survey-shows.html) of Americans drink coffee, making the U.S. the world’s largest consumer of the potent beans. We probably love it so much because it’s also our favorite drug—caffeine keeps us going (even in today’s strangely wintry weather). But only a fraction of addicts actually understand how caffeine impacts the brain. [Here’s a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuJOhpNS0IY&feature=youtu.be) that explains the addiction. The Reactions video explores the chemistry of caffeine, which breaks up into three different molecules: theobromine, paraxanthine, and theophylline. The combined impact of these three compounds induces the wakeful state we all need to start our mornings. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/64985/how-caffeine-affects-brain/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/64985/how-caffeine-affects-brain/"},"headline":"This Is How Caffeine Actually Affects Your Brain","datePublished":"2014-04-16T17:00:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:08:50.699Z","description":"The science behind America's favorite drug","url":"https://time.com/64985/how-caffeine-affects-brain/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Brain","Science topic","Caffeine","Coffee","Chemistry"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyle Chayka","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/64985/how-caffeine-affects-brain/","name":"This Is How Caffeine Actually Affects Your Brain"}}]}] ```