If you’re in the habit of drinking coffee everyday before work/school/whatever, you know the power that little mug of acrid brown soup wields over you. At least, you think you do. Researchers at Bristol University found 379 volunteers, from the stimulant-naive to self-described caffeine addicts — some of whom claimed that their brains “could not function” without their first cup. After feeding some of the volunteers regular coffee while the rest drank decaf placebos, they tested the range of attentiveness, anxiety, memory, and vigilance of the 379 participants. For the coffee-drinking veterans, the first cup only brought them to a normal level of alertness. The researchers suspect that, for routine coffee drinkers, the first cup of only reverses the persistent effects of overnight caffeine withdrawal. Of course, isn’t increasing perceived alertness the same as increasing alertness? How does one differentiate between the two without tricky brain-scanning technology? Technology unused by this research team. To further compound these doubts, Dr Euan Paul, executive director of the British Coffee Association, responded to the research:
“There is an overwhelming wealth of evidence showing that caffeine does increase alertness levels by acting as a stimulant on the central nervous system by prompting the release of adrenaline. This effect is not only found with subjects in a low state of alertness such as night- shift workers, or those who wake-up early in the morning, but is additionally found in subjects who already have a high state of alertness.”
Your move, Bristol research team.
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