You Used to Have More Energy Than This

By Connor Secor | Mitochondrial Health | Brain Aging | Circadian Science | Cognitive Performance

There is a version of you from ten years ago that you think about sometimes.

Not because life was simpler though maybe it was. Not because you had less responsibility though maybe that is true too. But because that version of you had something you do not have anymore, and you have tried hard not to notice.

Energy. Real energy. The kind that was there when you woke up without being summoned by an alarm and three coffees. The kind that carried you through an entire day without a mid-afternoon wall. The kind that left room for an actual evening, a book, a conversation, a workout rather than the couch and the phone and the quiet resignation that this is just what being older feels like.

But here is what nobody tells you: what you are experiencing is not age. It is accumulation. We want to fuel that old fire with THUMOS. 

It is the accumulation of chronic stress on your nervous system. The accumulation of technology rewiring your dopamine system in ways that make everything feel slightly flat. The accumulation of coffee habits that have quietly dismantled your circadian rhythm from the inside. And underneath all of it is the accumulation of cellular damage to the mitochondria that are supposed to be generating the energy your body runs on.

Your body did not forget how to make energy. It has been systematically stripped of the conditions that allow it to do so.

And understanding that distinction changes everything about what you do next.

The Mitochondria: Where Energy Actually Comes From  And Why Yours Are Struggling

Most people think of energy as something that comes from food, from sleep, from coffee, from motivation. But biologically, energy is a molecule — ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and it is manufactured almost entirely inside your mitochondria, the organelles found in nearly every cell in your body.

Your mitochondria are the actual power plants of your biology. Every heartbeat, every thought, every decision, every physical movement runs on ATP produced by the mitochondrial electron transport chain. And here is the critical fact that most people reaching for their third coffee of the day have never been told:

Mitochondrial function declines with age and that decline accelerates when you do not support it.

With age, mitochondrial function and CoQ10 synthesis decline, contributing to a range of degenerative conditions. One clinical trial showed that oral intake of CoQ10 slowed the age-related decline in vitality, physical performance, and health-related quality of life.

At the center of mitochondrial ATP production is Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) — a molecule that shuttles electrons through the electron transport chain, the process responsible for 95% of cellular energy production. CoQ10 is also a potent antioxidant within the mitochondrial membrane, protecting the energy-generating machinery from the reactive oxygen species produced as a byproduct of the same process.

Your body synthesizes CoQ10 naturally. But production peaks in your mid-twenties and then declines measurably, consistently, and progressively with every passing decade. Age-associated declines in brain mitochondrial function are concomitant with reduced levels of mitochondrial CoQ. Moreover, age-associated declines in mitochondrial function and CoQ levels are completely rescued by exogenous administration of water-soluble CoQ10.

This is not a minor biochemical footnote. It is a direct explanation for why you feel less energy in your 30s than you did in your 20s, less in your 40s than your 30s  not because you are doing anything wrong, but because the molecule most central to your cellular energy production is being made in smaller quantities every year.

But declining CoQ10 synthesis is only one part of what is happening. The more urgent part is what modern life  chronic stress, constant digital stimulation, disrupted sleep, and accumulated caffeine is doing to the mitochondria that remain. Because the mitochondria do not just decline passively with age. They decline actively when exposed to the oxidative stress of chronic cortisol elevation, the inflammatory burden of poor sleep, and the systemic inflammation of a disrupted gut-brain axis.

Every year of chronic stress is a year of accelerated mitochondrial damage. Every night of fragmented sleep is a night without the cellular repair that mitochondria require to maintain their efficiency. Every morning of high-cortisol coffee stacking is a morning of oxidative load on the membrane that CoQ10 is supposed to protect.

The version of you from ten years ago had more mitochondrial capacity. That is not metaphor. It is measurable cell biology.

Chronic Stress: The Silent Mitochondria Killer

Modern adult life is, for most people, a sustained low-grade emergency.

The inbox that expects immediate response. The financial pressure that never fully resolves. The parenting demands that override recovery. The professional expectations that have colonized what used to be personal time. The ambient anxiety of a world that delivers bad news at the speed of a notification.

This is not just unpleasant. It is physiologically costly in ways that compound over years in the direction of the energy deficit you are currently experiencing.

Chronic stress activates the HPA axis,  the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal cascade that releases cortisol into the bloodstream. In short bursts, cortisol is adaptive: it mobilizes glucose, sharpens attention, and prepares the body for action. But when the stress is chronic and the cortisol stays elevated, the downstream consequences spread across every major biological system.

 

How Phones and Technology Changed Your Brain's Energy Economy

You got your first smartphone sometime in the past fifteen years. And if you are honest about the comparison, the version of your attention and focus before it and after it, you know something changed.

What changed is not vague or unmeasurable. It is a documented, peer-reviewed neurological transformation that has happened to an entire generation simultaneously.

At the heart of smartphone addiction lies dopamine, the brain's "feel-good" neurotransmitter. Every ping, like, or notification triggers a small dopamine release, creating a cycle of anticipation and reward similar to gambling. The average person checks their smartphone over 150 times a day.

Your dopamine system evolved to respond to rewards that required genuine effort and arrived infrequently, the hunt successful, the relationship deepened, the skill mastered. The dopamine signal that followed was meaningful because it was rare. It calibrated your motivation, your drive, your sense of what was worth pursuing.

The smartphone  and the social media ecosystem built around it delivers micro-dopamine stimulation at a rate that no biological system evolved to handle. Every notification, every scroll, every like, every piece of novel content triggers a small dopamine release. Hundreds of times a day. For years.

The brain's response to chronic overstimulation of any receptor system is the same as its response to chronic overstimulation of any other: downregulation. Fewer receptors. Lower sensitivity. More stimulation required to produce the same signal. The currency of motivation devalues.

Chronic high-intensity digital exposure can induce structural and functional brain changes similar to other behavioral addictions, ranging from transient recall failures to persistent weakening of encoding and consolidation processes. Narrative and theoretical reviews describe convergent neural and behavioral evidence linking chronic digital exposure to reduced activation and structural changes in memory-related regions, including the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices.

This is why ordinary life, a conversation without a phone present, a task without a notification interrupting it, a moment of quiet without reaching for a screen feels insufficiently stimulating in a way it did not before. The baseline of your dopamine system has been recalibrated by years of superstimulus. What used to feel satisfying no longer registers above the threshold.

The energetic consequence of this is direct and often unrecognized: a downregulated dopamine system produces less motivational drive. The energy to initiate, to persist, to feel rewarded by completion all of these depend on dopaminergic tone. When the dopamine system is chronically under stimulated by ordinary experience because it has been calibrated to smartphone-level stimulation, the motivation to do the things that would restore genuine energy, exercise, meaningful social connection, creative work, time in nature falls below the activation threshold.

Screen time disrupts sleep patterns, reducing rest by 24 minutes per hour of nighttime use, while social media engagement increases anxiety and depression risk by up to 60%.

The phone keeps you up later than you should be. The blue light suppresses melatonin. The anxiety of the content activates your sympathetic nervous system before sleep. And then the fragmented, cortisol-elevated sleep you get fails to restore the mitochondria, fails to consolidate memories, fails to clear the toxic protein buildup from the brain  and you wake up reaching for the coffee before you have given your body a single moment to assess what it actually needs.

The Coffee Habit That Is Slowly Dismantling Your Circadian Rhythm

Here is the part of the energy story that most people have never heard told clearly.

Coffee did not just become a habit for you. It became a dependency whose timing, volume, and frequency have quietly reshaped the biological clock that governs when your body produces energy, when it produces melatonin, when it produces cortisol, and when it is physiologically capable of deep, restorative sleep.

Your circadian rhythm is a 24-hour biological clock, controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus that regulates virtually every hormonal and neurological process in your body according to time of day. Cortisol peaks in the early morning to prepare you for waking. Melatonin rises in the evening to prepare you for sleep. Body temperature, immune function, neurotransmitter production, cellular repair, all of it is scheduled and coordinated by this circadian architecture.

Coffee, consumed the way most adults consume it, multiple cups throughout the morning and often extending into the afternoon disrupts this architecture at multiple points simultaneously.

Caffeine suppresses melatonin secretion and delays the onset of the biological night, disrupting circadian rhythms. A 2025 meta-analysis of 22 controlled trials (956 participants) found that caffeine significantly reduced total sleep time by 34.67 minutes, reduced sleep efficiency by 4.74%, reduced slow-wave sleep proportions by 1.01%, and prolonged sleep onset latency by 8.35 minutes.

Slow-wave sleep is the deep sleep stage that caffeine most significantly suppresses, is where the majority of physical restoration happens, where growth hormone is released, where the glymphatic system flushes toxic proteins from the brain, and where mitochondria in every tissue undergo their most intensive repair and regeneration. When caffeine consistently reduces slow-wave sleep, the cumulative deficit in cellular repair is one of the primary mechanisms through which aging accelerates at the biological level.

Evening coffee consumption reduces nocturnal melatonin secretion by 30%, which may contribute to progressive metabolic dysfunction. Delayed morning cortisol peaks or nocturnal cortisol elevation can antagonize melatonin's effects while exacerbating hormonal dysregulation.

The later coffee habit extends into the afternoon. Many people who started with one morning cup in their 20s now drink two or three, extending further into the day, because the tolerance their adenosine receptor upregulation has built requires more caffeine to achieve the same partial waking. The afternoon cup delays melatonin onset by an additional hour or two. Sleep arrives later. The alarm stays the same. Total sleep time compresses. Slow-wave sleep is reduced. And the next morning, the fatigue is worse demanding more coffee and the cycle tightens another turn.

 

The Body Does Not Forget

There is a concept in biology and in trauma science that is equally true at the cellular level: the body keeps the score.

Every year of chronic sleep deprivation accumulates glymphatic debt,  toxic proteins that were not cleared from brain tissue because the deep sleep required for clearance was reduced. Every year of chronic cortisol elevation leaves epigenetic marks on the genes that regulate inflammation, cellular repair, and stress responsiveness. Every year of mitochondrial oxidative damage without adequate antioxidant support compounds into a lower cellular energy baseline.

The brain in particular does not forget. While catching up on rest can restore alertness and memory in the short term, research suggests that neurons damaged or lost through chronic deprivation may not fully regenerate, especially if poor sleep habits persist over years. A 2017 study published in Brain found that just one night of sleep deprivation increased beta-amyloid accumulation in the brains of healthy adults.

A large Mayo Clinic study published in Neurology (2025) found that people with long-term sleep troubles were 40% more likely to develop dementia or cognitive impairment, with brain scans showing changes linked to Alzheimer's. Those reporting reduced sleep showed cognitive declines comparable to being four years older.

This is not meant to produce anxiety. It is meant to produce urgency, the healthy kind that produces action rather than avoidance.

Because the other side of the body keeping score is equally true: the body can also heal. The brain retains plasticity throughout adult life. Mitochondria respond to the right nutritional inputs. CoQ10 levels can be restored through supplementation. The dopamine system can be recalibrated through deliberate behavioral and nutritional intervention. The circadian rhythm can be partially restored through consistent sleep timing and reduced late-day caffeine exposure.

And the gut-brain axis which regulates the neurotransmitter production, the neuroinflammation control, and the metabolic signaling that all determine how energized, focused, and motivated you feel responds measurably to prebiotic and gut barrier support within weeks of consistent daily intervention.

The score is not final. But the longer you wait to act on it, the more the accumulated deficit matters.

What Your Brain Needs More of as You Age, Not Less

The cultural narrative about aging and energy is almost entirely focused on what to reduce: reduce calories, reduce alcohol, reduce stress, reduce screen time. All of these are valid. But the conversation that is almost universally missing is what to add,  specifically, what the aging brain and its mitochondria are not receiving enough of, and how that deficit compounds every year it goes unaddressed.

As you age your brain specifically needs:

More mitochondrial support — because CoQ10 synthesis is declining, the electron transport chain is under higher oxidative burden, and ATP production in neurons is the foundation on which every cognitive function sits.

More neurotransmitter precursor support — because dopamine and norepinephrine synthesis depends on adequate L-Tyrosine, and a brain under chronic stress depletes these precursors faster than dietary intake replaces them.

More gut-brain axis protection — because the gut microbiome that produces 90% of your serotonin, supports GABA production, and regulates neuroinflammation is being depleted by the same chronic stress, poor sleep, and processed food that is depleting your mitochondria.

More intelligent caffeine use — not elimination, but calibration: lower doses, earlier in the day, with L-Theanine modulation that protects the circadian rhythm that high-dose late-day caffeine dismantles.

More cellular repair opportunity — which means protecting the deep slow-wave sleep that caffeine most specifically suppresses, and supporting the glymphatic function that clears the toxic protein buildup that accumulates when that sleep is chronically reduced.

How THUMOS Addresses the Accumulation

THUMOS was not designed for the version of you at 22 who needed a pre-workout and a protein shake. It was designed for the version of you who has been running hard for a decade or more and has started to notice the gap between who you are and who you used to be.

Nano-Emulsified CoQ10 (100mg) — directly addresses the age-related CoQ10 decline that is reducing your mitochondrial electron transport efficiency and ATP output. The nano-emulsified form ensures dramatically higher bioavailability than standard CoQ10 supplements — more of the molecule reaches the mitochondrial membrane of your neurons and cardiac cells where the energy deficit actually exists.

 Taurine (500mg) — protects mitochondrial membrane integrity, regulates the intracellular calcium that chronic stress dysregulates in neurons, and has been shown to recover ATP levels in brain mitochondria compromised by metabolic stress. Taurine supports both the cardiac demands of chronically elevated cortisol and the neuronal protection that a brain carrying years of oxidative burden requires.

 L-Theanine (200mg) + Green Tea Caffeine (50mg) — the intelligent caffeine solution for an aging circadian rhythm. Instead of the 150–300mg cortisol-activating, melatonin-suppressing caffeine load of a standard coffee habit, THUMOS delivers 50mg of natural green tea caffeine modulated by 200mg of L-Theanine — producing the alertness benefit of caffeine without the HPA axis activation that compounds the cortisol burden, and at a dose that does not carry the melatonin-suppressing circadian disruption of afternoon coffee.

 Cognizin® Citicoline (200mg) — supports acetylcholine production (the precision focus neurotransmitter that aging depletes) and has been clinically shown to increase frontal lobe ATP by 14% — directly addressing the neuroenergetic deficit that mitochondrial decline and chronic stress produce in the brain region most responsible for executive function and sustained attention.

L-Tyrosine (500mg) — provides the amino acid precursor for dopamine and norepinephrine, the catecholamines that a downregulated, over-stimulated dopamine system and a chronic-stress-depleted HPA axis have reduced below their functional baseline. By replenishing the precursor supply, L-Tyrosine supports the neurochemical foundation of motivation, drive, and the felt sense of having energy to spend on what matters.

 Agave Inulin (1g) + L-Glutamine (1g) — feed and protect the gut microbiome that regulates serotonin production, neuroinflammation, and the gut-brain signaling that determines how your brain translates its cellular energy output into the actual felt experience of being alert, motivated, and focused. The gut that is depleted by years of chronic stress and disrupted sleep is not supporting the brain the way it should be — and no amount of CoQ10 fully compensates for a gut-brain axis that is generating the neuroinflammatory burden that undermines cognitive function from below.

The Honest Truth About Getting It Back

You are not going to feel 22 again. That is not what this is about.

But there is a meaningful difference between the energy available to a 35, 40, or 50-year-old who is actively supporting their mitochondrial function, protecting their circadian rhythm, rebuilding their gut-brain axis, and providing their neurons with the precursors and cofactors they need — and one who is running on borrowed time, borrowed alertness, and accumulated biological debt.

The version of you that had more energy was not living in a different body. It was living in a less depleted version of the same one. The depletion is real. So is the capacity for restoration.

What the body does not forget, it can also be helped to heal. Not completely, not overnight, and not through any single intervention. But progressively, cumulatively, and measurably — through the same patient accumulation that created the deficit working in the other direction.

Start where the science points: the mitochondria, the gut, the neurotransmitters, the circadian rhythm, and the nervous system that regulates all of them.

THUMOS was built for exactly that starting point.

Fuel your brain. See the vision. Learn more at livethumos.com

Citations & References

1. Life Extension. (2024). Role of CoQ10 in Aging — Mitochondrial Function and CoQ10 Synthesis Decline with Age; Clinical Trial Shows CoQ10 Slowed Age-Related Decline in Vitality and Physical Performance. lifeextension.com/magazine/2023/1/coq10-in-aging

2. PMC / NIH. Water-Soluble CoQ10 as a Promising Anti-Aging Agent for Neurological Dysfunction in Brain Mitochondria — Age-Associated Declines in Brain Mitochondrial Function Concomitant with Reduced CoQ Levels; Completely Rescued by Exogenous CoQ10. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6466529

3. PMC / NIH. (2025). Coenzyme Q10 and Cognition: A Review — Age-Related Metabolic Changes Including Decreased ATP Production, Increased Oxidative Stress, Poorer Cardiovascular Function, and Reduced Cerebral Blood Flow Implicated in Cognitive Decline. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12430131

4. Nutrients. (2019). The Paradox of Coenzyme Q10 in Aging — CoQ Levels Decline in Some Tissues During Aging; CoQ10 Supplementation Has Shown Benefits as Anti-Aging Agent. doi.org/10.3390/nu11092221

5. SoliVana Wellness Lab. (2026). How to Recover from Chronic Stress Overload — Chronic Stress is a Hardware Issue; Wired But Tired Loop; Body Loses Ability to Toggle to Restorative State. solivana.com/2026/05/31/how-to-recover-from-chronic-stress-overload

6. Dr. Elsa M. Orlandini. (2025). Are Smartphones Ruining Our Brains? — Average Person Checks Smartphone 150+ Times Daily; Every Notification Triggers Dopamine Release; 2025 Study: 72 Hours Without Phone Alters Reward Regions Positively. drorlandini.com/articles/are-smartphones-ruining-our-brains

7. arXiv / Review of Negative Effects of Digital Technology on Cognition. (2025). Chronic High-Intensity Digital Exposure Induces Structural and Functional Brain Changes Similar to Behavioral Addictions; Reduced Activation in Prefrontal and Anterior Cingulate Cortices. arxiv.org/pdf/2603.10025

8. Quest Behavioral Health. (2025). Does Smartphone Use Affect Your Mental Health? — Screen Time Disrupts Sleep by 24 Minutes Per Hour of Nighttime Use; Social Media Increases Anxiety and Depression Risk by up to 60%. questbehavioralhealth.com/does-smartphone-use-affect-mental-health

9. ScienceDirect. (2025). Age- and Dose-Specific Effects of Caffeine on Sleep: A Meta-Analysis of 22 Controlled Crossover Trials (956 Participants) — Caffeine Reduces Total Sleep Time 34.67 min, Sleep Efficiency 4.74%, Slow-Wave Sleep 1.01%; Prolongs Sleep Onset Latency 8.35 min; Suppresses Melatonin and Delays Biological Night. sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1389945725005490

10. ResearchGate / Coffee and Melatonin. Evening Coffee Consumption Reduces Nocturnal Melatonin Secretion by 30%; Delayed Morning Cortisol Peaks Antagonize Melatonin's Effects. researchgate.net/publication/9031144_The_effects_of_coffee_consumption_on_sleep_and_melatonin_secretion

11. Peak Saunas. (2026). Coffee and Cortisol: What the Research Actually Says — Caffeine Timing Matters; Late Afternoon/Evening Suppresses Melatonin and Fragments Sleep Architecture. peaksaunas.com/blogs/wellness/longevity-coffee-cortisol

12. PMC / NIH. (2025). Melatonin and Cortisol Suppression and Circadian Rhythm Disruption in Burnout — 14 Studies Confirm Burnout Associated with Suppressed Melatonin, Cortisol Dysregulation, Circadian Misalignment; Optimizing Circadian Function Mitigates Fatigue. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12651070

13. Mayo Clinic / ScienceDaily. (2025). Sleepless Nights May Raise Dementia Risk by 40% — Long-Term Sleep Troubles Associated with 40% Higher Dementia Risk; Reduced Sleep Comparable to Four Years of Brain Aging. sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250913232924.htm

14. Brain Health University. (2025). Can Chronic Sleep Deprivation Cause Permanent Brain Damage? — Neurons May Not Fully Regenerate; Beta-Amyloid Accumulates After Single Night of Deprivation. brainhealthuniversity.com/cognitive-decline/can-chronic-sleep-deprivation-cause-permanent-brain-damage

15. Endocrine Abstracts. (2025). Cortisol Response to Coffee — Coffee Shows Strongest Cortisol Effect of All Caffeinated Beverages; 15 Studies, 2000–2024. endocrine-abstracts.org/ea/0110/ea0110p151

16. PubMed. (2024). Habitual Caffeine Use Associated with Heightened Cortisol Reactivity to Stress — Daily Coffee Sensitizes HPA Axis Rather Than Protecting It. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39007443

17. Cognizin® / Kyowa Hakko. Cognizin® Citicoline Increases Brain Energy (ATP) by 14% in Frontal Lobe. cognizin.com/studies/cognizin-citicoline-increases-brain-energy-atp-by-14

18. ScienceDirect. (2016). Taurine Treatment Preserves Brain Mitochondrial Function — Recovers ATP Levels in Compromised Brain Mitochondria. sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0753332216308423

19. PMC / NIH. (2025). High-Dose L-Theanine–Caffeine Combination Improves Neurobehavioural Measures in Sleep-Deprived Adults. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12491391

20. ResearchGate. (2026). L-Theanine for Stress and Cortisol Regulation — Lowers Cortisol, Shifts Autonomic Balance Toward Parasympathetic Dominance. researchgate.net/publication/399138831

21. Frontiers in Nutrition. (2025). Nano-Emulsified CoQ10: Bioavailability and Cellular Energy. frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1605033/full

22. PubMed: L-Tyrosine and Catecholamine Synthesis — pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8293316/

23. PMC / NIH. (2025). The Gut Microbiome and Its Impact on Mood and Decision-Making. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12609437

24. THUMOS. (2025). Science-Backed Cellular Energy, Brain Health, and Nervous System Support. livethumos.com

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This post is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. THUMOS is a daily supplement and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition. Consult a licensed healthcare professional before beginning any new supplement regimen.