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Who drinks coffee in the morning?

P

Phantonym

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Coffee consumption unrelated to alertness

The stimulatory effects of caffeine may be nothing more than an illusion according to new research, which shows there is no real benefit to be gained from the habitual morning cup of coffee.

Tests on 379 individuals who abstained from caffeine for 16 hours before being given either caffeine or a placebo and then tested for a range of responses showed little variance in levels of alertness.
The study, published online in the journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, reports that frequent coffee drinkers develop a tolerance to both the anxiety-producing effects and the stimulatory effects of caffeine. While frequent consumers may feel alerted by coffee, evidence suggests that this is actually merely the reversal of the fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal. And given the increased propensity to anxiety and raised blood pressure induced by caffeine consumption, there is no net benefit to be gained.

Peter Rogers, from the University of Bristol’s Department of Experimental Psychology and one of the lead authors of the study, said: “Our study shows that we don't gain an advantage from consuming caffeine - although we feel alerted by it, this is caffeine just bringing us back to normal. On the other hand, while caffeine can increase anxiety, tolerance means that for most caffeine consumers this effect is negligible.”

Approximately half of the participants were non/low caffeine consumers and the other half were medium/high caffeine consumers. All were asked to rate their personal levels of anxiety, alertness and headache before and after being given either the caffeine or the placebo. They were also asked to carry out a series of computer tasks to test for their levels of memory, attentiveness and vigilance.

The medium/high caffeine consumers who received the placebo reported a decrease in alertness and an increase in headache, neither of which were reported by those who received caffeine. However, their post-caffeine levels of alertness were no higher than the non/low consumers who received a placebo, suggesting caffeine only brings coffee drinkers back up to 'normal'.

The authors also found that the genetic predisposition to anxiety did not deter coffee drinking. In fact, people with the gene variant associated with anxiety tended to consume slightly larger amounts of coffee than those without the variant, suggesting that a mild increase in anxiety may be a part of the pleasant buzz caused by caffeine.

Bristol University | News from the University | caffeine buzz
 

Haphazard

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I dunno, I don't drink coffee, but caffiene tends to make me sleepy.
 

Lux

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I love coffee in the morning! Hahahaha, but now that you mention it, I was visiting a friend who didn't drink it, and so I didn't have it for the week I was there, to no ill effect. I was actually surprised, pleasantly. :D
 

Xenon

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...frequent coffee drinkers develop a tolerance to both the anxiety-producing effects and the stimulatory effects of caffeine. While frequent consumers may feel alerted by coffee, evidence suggests that this is actually merely the reversal of the fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal.

Not surprising to me at all. In university I drank coffee only occasionally, and I got a definite buzz that helped me stay up later or study while tired. Now that I drink it daily I don't really feel anything. And it seems common for regular drinkers to feel drained and get headaches when they don't drink it.

I read recently that supplements marketed as metabolism boosters often contain a lot of caffeine, and the pattern is the same: there is a small increase in metabolism temporarily (for a few weeks), then it reverts back to normal.
 

miss fortune

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I do... the bitterness of coffee shocks me awake... unfortunatly coffee and I aren't the best of friends either, but I persist in drinking it in hopes that some day we'll be friends :laugh:
 
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Oh Hell No!

I do not touch caffeine, ever again.

Last time I drank coffee, I ended up fucking a lot of shit up, relationship wise and had a terrible withdraw which ended up in the emergency room.

Nowadays, I make sure I clear my schedule for the day, even when I drink tea.

EDIT: OK, it was hella fun while it lasted; adrenaline, endorphins, and that relationship was rubbish anyways, but the come-down is just not worth the high for me. I really crashed.
 

King sns

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I'm a heavy coffee drinker. 2 "American cups" in the morning and at least 2 in the afternoon. If I don't get at least 2 "American cups" of coffee, (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) I will be cranky, lethargic, and have a splitting headache. Putting on my glasses, drinking water, and taking ibuprofen until I get that second cup. It's very rare that I miss though. :)

("American cup"= 16 oz. I made it up when I bought my mom a 5 cup coffee maker and told her that it was 2.5 American cups.)
 

ElizaJane

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I heard a reference to this study on TV this morning... My husband and I limit our coffee drinking to weekends and vacations. Otherwise we notice our tolerance levels go up. Coffee buzzes (and the fun conversations that come with them) are just too good to give up completely or diminish by overdoing it!
 

Spamtar

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Oh Hell No!

I do not touch caffeine, ever again.

Last time I drank coffee, I ended up fucking a lot of shit up, relationship wise and had a terrible withdraw which ended up in the emergency room.

Nowadays, I make sure I clear my schedule for the day, even when I drink tea.

EDIT: OK, it was hella fun while it lasted; adrenaline, endorphins, and that relationship was rubbish anyways, but the come-down is just not worth the high for me. I really crashed.

^Wow that is heavy duty! Where can I get some of that. Lol

Coffee gets me wired. I love the taste of great coffee and take a lot of care in mixing different beans for the perfect blend.

It does give me insomnia some times however.

Tea on the other hand I drink almost daily (black tea w milk) and it doesn't wire me in the least, go figure.
 

Donna Cecilia

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I disagree. I can´t be on this wolrd if I don´t have my morning coffee.
 
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^Wow that is heavy duty! Where can I get some of that. Lol

It was terrible, just terrible. I had skipped lunch, drank HALF a mochaccino and I was out of it, for the rest of the day and night.

At first, I felt like the king of the world. Creative, sharp, fast, insanely happy and giddy and just, on top of everything!

I normally talk pretty much anyways, and am pretty loudly when I get excited. The coffee version of me, though, not pretty. Everything times 10 and I had very little control over it. Totally uninhibited.

Then came the crash. I lost complete connection to my physical being, I had no muscular control over my extremities. I felt like a floating head. Sweating, shaking, had the stare going, paranoid, heart palpation, nausea and eventually fainted when I tried to fight it and stand up.

Went to the ER, as I had no idea what was happening. Hehe, doctors were like, yeah... go home.

To this day, I'm wondering if the coffee guy put speed in my coffee...
 

FDG

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Yeah well who cares. There's a zillion studies that claim the opposite. I WANT TO BELIEVE :D

Then came the crash. I lost complete connection to my physical being, I had no muscular control over my extremities. I felt like a floating head.

Oh yeah, depersonalization. I never got that with coffee, but I did with redbull (twice out of 2 times I drank that darn thing). Extremely unpleasant.
 

teslashock

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:coffee:

I'm addicted.

The study is interesting. Apparently coffee is just a medicine for caffeine withdrawal. But what if you drink a cup when you are not in a period of withdrawal (after you have already risen back to "normal" levels of alertness)? Does it make you more alert and attentive at that point?

I've noticed that when I drink coffee in the morning (my usual time, and the time at which withdrawal is kicking in), it only cures my headache and wakes me up to a feeling of alertness that I have when I've accomplished 8+ hours of sleep. However, when I drink coffee in the middle of the day, when I'm not going through withdrawal, I've noticed that it makes me more mentally active, alert, attentive, focused, and quick on my feet.

It's really hard for me to believe that coffee doesn't at least affect me in a positive way in certain contexts.
 

mrcockburn

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I do, but never upon waking. I don't need energy to take a shower, get dressed etc. I drink it right when I get to work.

And if coffee doesn't make one feel alert, but instead reverses withdrawal, how do you explain how batshit HYPER people get when they drink it for the first time? And how they get to the point of addiction?

I need it. 3 Red Bulls a day.
 

Amethyst

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I only drink it if I have to go to work/take an exam.
 

Redbone

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I drink it--I try to keep it to two cups a day.

Bad day? Three cups.

I couldn't stand the taste or smell of it while I had a little person on board, though. It was the first drink after the little one was evicted. :)
 
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