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Energy shot before bed: 200 mg of caffeine and how long it lasts
Updated October 5, 2026 · Sources: 5-hour ENERGY · U.S. Food and Drug Administration · U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Short answer
200 mg
per 2 fl oz (60 ml)
15 h
until under 25 mg is left
The 200 mg arrives in about two ounces, so it is easy to drink in seconds and easy to underestimate. Under 25 mg is 15 hours away. For an 11 pm bedtime the last shot is early morning, not afternoon.
General information from population studies (NIH, CDC, NSF, AASM). It is not medical advice and does not replace a clinician who knows you.
One bottle holds half of the 400 mg a day the FDA cites for most healthy adults. A second bottle reaches the full amount in a single morning. The FDA separately warns about pure and highly concentrated caffeine: one teaspoon of pure powdered caffeine can contain as much as 28 cups of coffee. A factory-sealed shot is a fixed, labeled dose and a very different thing, but it is the same reason to read the number on the bottle.
Model: remaining = dose × 0.5^(hours ÷ 5). Half-life 5 h (Institute of Medicine 2001); real half-lives run 1.5–9.5 h between people.
A fast hit and a slow exit. With a 5 hour half-life, 200 mg becomes 100 mg at hour 5, 50 mg at hour 10 and 25 mg at hour 15. Finishing the bottle at 3 pm still leaves about 87 mg at 9 pm, since 6 hours is a little over one half-life. The model only tracks the tail of the curve, which is the part that reaches sleep.
01Last energy shot by bedtime
| Bedtime | Finish by (25 mg left) | Left at lights out if finished 6 h before | Left if finished 3 h before |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 pm | 6:00 am | 87 mg | 132 mg |
| 9:30 pm | 6:30 am | 87 mg | 132 mg |
| 10:00 pm | 7:00 am | 87 mg | 132 mg |
| 10:30 pm | 7:30 am | 87 mg | 132 mg |
| 11:00 pm | 8:00 am | 87 mg | 132 mg |
| 11:30 pm | 8:30 am | 87 mg | 132 mg |
| 12:00 am | 9:00 am | 87 mg | 132 mg |
| 12:30 am | 9:30 am | 87 mg | 132 mg |
| 1:00 am | 10:00 am | 87 mg | 132 mg |
Finish-by times are rounded down to 5 minutes. 25 mg is this site's planning line, not a clinical threshold. Every drink at once: caffeine cutoff grid.
02Regular strength, extra strength and what the label can tell you
This page works with two label figures. The maker of 5-hour ENERGY states that the regular strength shot has 200 mg, which it equates to 8 ounces of the leading premium coffee, and that the extra strength has 230 mg, which it equates to a 12 ounce cup. Those coffee comparisons are the brand's wording, not a measurement made for this page.
The 30 mg difference sounds small, but on the clock it is about an hour. The extra strength dose takes about 16 hours to fall under 25 mg, against 15 hours for the regular one. A regular shot at 7 am is below the line by 10 pm; an extra strength one is not clear until 11 pm.
Shots have no range in this site's data, because the only fixed figure is the label. Nothing here covers shots from other makers, and no USDA figure is used. If your bottle names a different number, replace 200 with it in the last-coffee calculator and use that result.
| Serving or brew | Caffeine | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular strength shot | 200 | Brand page: "contain about as much caffeine as 8 ounces of the leading premium coffee, or 200 mg" | 5-hour ENERGY |
| Extra strength shot | 230 | Brand page: "contains 230 mg of caffeine, which is about as much as a 12-ounce cup of leading premium coffee" | 5-hour ENERGY |
| Share of 400 mg a day, regular | 50% | Calculated by DozeClock: 200 ÷ 400. The 400 mg figure is the FDA's for most adults | FDA |
| Share of 400 mg a day, extra strength | 58% | Calculated by DozeClock: 230 ÷ 400 = 57.5%, rounded | FDA |
| Pure powdered caffeine, 1 teaspoon | not a drink | FDA: "Just one teaspoon of pure powdered caffeine can contain the same amount of caffeine as 28 cups of coffee" | FDA |
Hours to under 25 mg for the extra strength shot (about 16 h) are calculated by DozeClock with the same 5 hour half-life as the chart. The brand page states mg and coffee comparisons only; its bottle size is not quoted here because it was not on the page that was fetched.
03Energy shot next to the three nearest drinks
| Drink | Serving | mg | Hours to under 25 mg | Finish by for an 11 pm bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy shot | 2 fl oz (60 ml) | 200 | 15 h | 8:00 am |
| Cold brew coffee | 12 fl oz (355 ml) | 155 | 13 h 10 min | 9:50 am |
| Brewed coffee | 8 fl oz (237 ml) | 96 | 9 h 42 min | 1:15 pm |
| Energy drink | 8 fl oz (237 ml) | 72 | 7 h 38 min | 3:20 pm |
mg per serving, not per ounce: servings differ in size · nearest = smallest difference in mg per serving (data/caffeine.json)
By volume a shot is the densest drink on this site, about 100 mg per fluid ounce at the stated 2 fl oz serving, against about 3 mg for cola. By dose it matches roughly two cups of brewed coffee at 96 mg each. The difference is speed: two ounces go down in seconds, a coffee over twenty minutes. The table shows the three drinks nearest in dose; the finish-by column shows how far back the shot pushes your day.
Sources
- 5-hour ENERGY Caffeine Facts — 5-hour ENERGY (official site)
- Spilling the Beans: How Much Caffeine is Too Much? — U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- Pure and Highly Concentrated Caffeine — U.S. Food and Drug Administration
General information from population studies (NIH, CDC, NSF, AASM). It is not medical advice and does not replace a clinician who knows you.