World of Psychology

Many people include some dose of caffeine in their morning routine, relying on coffee, tea, or soda to give them a boost to start the day. Unfortunately, new research shows that for many regular caffeine users the boost does not actually take place. The report states that people who rarely use caffeine indeed get a boost from a cup of coffee. However, the lift that regular users feel after drinking coffee is actually just their bodies returning to a normal state. The improvement is actually just withdrawal symptoms that developed overnight being relieved.

But the Bristol researchers, who carried out a review of previous studies into the effects of caffeine, say all the drink does is counteract the mild caffeine withdrawal symptoms people are experiencing because they have gone without the stimulant overnight.

And those who drink a caffeinated drink first thing are no more alert than those who never consume one.

That would mean that if you actually want a boost from caffeine, you need to become an irregular user and power through the common caffeine withdrawal symptoms for a couple weeks.


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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 10 Mar 2007
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.

APA Reference
Meek, W. (2007). Coffee Doesn’t Help You Wake Up. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 13, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/03/10/coffee-doesnt-help-you-wake-up/

 

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