Some people can't wake up until they've had their morning cup of joe. The average 5 oz. cup of coffee has anywhere from 40 to 100mg of caffeine, while your favorite soda contains about 50mg. A caffeine pill for staying awake may have between 100 and 200mg of caffeine. Sure, caffeine can help you stay awake; it's a stimulant. But using caffeine to feel artificially awake has psychological consequences as well. Weigh the good against the bad to decide whether you want to incorporate caffeine as part of your everyday life.
Alertness
The major benefit of caffeine is that it can help you feel alert and focused for short periods of time, which is ideal if you didn't get enough sleep the night before. Caffeine works by affecting the cerebral cortex in the brain and bonding to the adenosine receptors, according to the University of Minnesota. Adenosine receptors are responsible for making you feel sleepy, and when inhibited, you feel an increased feeling of wakefulness, alertness and focus, which can be helpful throughout the day.
Stress
The Michigan State University College of Law cautions that too much caffeine on a daily basis can make you feel stressed or more susceptible to stress. Caffeine users may adversely react to stressful situations and not be able to effectively deal with them. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has admonished makers of caffeinated products to label items more clearly with the amount of caffeine in milligrams, so that users can make better choices about how much caffeine to ingest daily.
Insomnia
While staying awake is often the aim for drinking or consuming caffeine, too much caffeine can interrupt with your sleep patterns, leaving you tired and dealing with insomnia. Consuming caffeine less than four hours before bed may leave you tossing and turning, even when you are trying hard to get some shut-eye. While caffeine is fine in moderation throughout the day, stop usage well before bedtime to allow the adenosine receptors to make you feel tired for a better night's sleep.
Restlessness
Sometimes you may refer to the feeling you get when consuming caffeine as "the jitters." The restlessness that sometimes accompanies a highly caffeinated beverage is caused by the stimulation to the pituitary gland in the brain. Caffeine causes your pituitary gland to react as if there were an emergency, points out the University of Minnesota, creating false adrenaline, which results in a higher heart rate, faster breathing and a higher degree of dopamine in the bloodstream. You might feel hyper, irritable and restless, warns the Mayo Clinic.
Dependency
While caffeine is fine in moderation, each time that you consume it, you raise your body's resistance to its effects. That means that if you are consuming caffeine for the first time, you may feel alert and focused, but as the consumption continues, you'll need more caffeine to experience the same effects, says Janis H. Mena, a registered dietitian and coordinator of education and training programs at the Student Health Care Center at the University of Florida. This can lead to a caffeine dependency. It's important to remember that caffeine is a drug and you can become addicted to it.
References
- Oklahoma State University: Caffeine Facts
- Michigan State University College of Law: Citizen Petition for New Labeling Requirments for Caffeine in Food
- University of Minnesota: How Does Caffeine Work in the Brain?
- Mayo Clinic: Caffeine: How Much Is Too Much?
- University of Florida: Research on the Trends of College Students and Caffeine Dependence
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