Truth about that morning pick-me-up

PEOPLE who regularly have caffeinated drinks demonstrated the same level of mental alertness and sleepiness as those who don’t drink them, according to a UK study published in the journal Psychopharmacology in 2013.

This is because we become tolerant to the wakefulness and anxiogenic (anxiety making) effects of caffeine, says Peter Rogers, a professor of biological psychology at the University of Bristol, and one of the study authors.

‘Habitual coffee drinkers who rely on their coffee to give them a perk in the morning are feeling alerted by caffeine because they are actually going from caffeine withdrawal — having had no caffeine overnight — to ‘normal’, but not better than normal,’ he told Good Health.

As for drinking coffee to keep you awake, people’s tolerance of caffeine varies, says Professor Jim Horne, recently retired head of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University. ‘I can drink a coffee in the evening and then get to sleep no problem,’ he says.

‘Anyone who has loads of coffee through the day might find it then causes an issue — but sometimes I think there is a psychosomatic element to it.

‘People think that their coffee will keep them awake and so it does.’