Caffeine Doesn’t Give You Energy
What you really need to feel more energized.
Here’s a wake-up call:
Caffeine may not be the energy booster everyone believes it to be.
According to a study from Michigan State University, caffeine may make you more alert and focused, but it won’t help you in terms of providing you with energy and cognitive functioning.
Caffeine Education
Caffeine is a stimulant and doesn’t have any calories.
In order to have energy, we need fuel from calories. Therefore, caffeine doesn’t provide us with the energy we think it does. Can somebody say placebo effect?
However, caffeine does prevent us from feeling tired by blocking the binding of adenosine to receptors in our brains. When adenosine binds with these receptors, it causes us to feel relaxed and sedated aka tired. Caffeine stops this from happening and that’s when we think it is providing us with energy, but really, it’s just keeping us awake.
Is Sleep Better?
Specifically, lack of sleep negatively impacted cognitive functions associated with problem-solving, multi-tasking, and impulse inhibition according to the study previously mentioned.
And “for a large number of participants,” consuming caffeine didn’t make up for the shortfall in shuteye.
However, caffeine still offers a number of benefits including strength and exercise, the reduced risk of premature death in women and those with diabetes, and decreased cancer risk.
But the researchers point out that with or without caffeine, your work is likely to be sloppier after a poor night’s sleep. So sleep could be more beneficial for you if you’re trying to be more alert and focused.
Not only can a lack of sleep prevent you from being more focused, but it can also make you more irritable in your social relationships and lead to poor eating habits because you’re more frustrated in your daily life and less able to manage your feelings and emotions.
Everyone is different so while some people don’t need as much sleep as others, generally, the vast majority of adults need at least seven hours of sleep.
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References:
Li, G., Ma, D., Zhang, Y., Zheng, W., & Wang, P. (2013). Coffee consumption and risk of colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis of observational studies. Public health nutrition, 16(2), 346–357. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980012002601
Lopez-Garcia, E., van Dam, R. M., Li, T. Y., Rodriguez-Artalejo, F., & Hu, F. B. (2008). The relationship of coffee consumption with mortality. Annals of internal medicine, 148(12), 904–914. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-148-12-200806170-00003
Stepan ME, Altmann EM, Fenn KM. Caffeine selectively mitigates cognitive deficits caused by sleep deprivation. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2021 May 20.
