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posted by n1 on Friday September 05 2014, @08:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the coffee++ dept.

Kiki Sanford on the eternal neurological battle between coffee and your brain.

I just poured my third cup of coffee today. It’s mid-afternoon, so I do this knowing that it means I will lie in bed tonight staring at the ceiling entirely unable to sleep after I have fully annoyed my spouse with my inability to cease talking or stop moving. But, my energy is flagging, and I have words to write right now.

Even though coffee and (more specifically) caffeine are known to produce unpleasant side-effects, the majority of the US citizenry is just like me. At least 80% of us consume caffeine daily. According to a study released in March of this year by the National Coffee Association of the USA, 61% of Americans drink coffee daily, and according to a review prepared for the FDA in 2012 based on data for the years 2003-2008, we consume about 300mg of caffeine per day on average.

What does caffeine do for us? Why am I reaching for another cuppa?

Just poured my second cup for the day, wondering if I can just apply a electric current to my head...

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by evilviper on Friday September 05 2014, @08:59AM

    by evilviper (1760) on Friday September 05 2014, @08:59AM (#89746) Homepage Journal

    It might sound crazy, but the best fix for tiredness is a coffee nap:

    http://www.voanews.com/content/scientists-coffee-and-naps-the-best-combination/2432774.html [voanews.com]

    --
    Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday September 05 2014, @09:33AM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Friday September 05 2014, @09:33AM (#89751) Journal

    I hardly ever consume caffeine. That means that when I need a boost of wakefulness, I can just drink a cup of tea / soft drink and it will actually work, whereas most people I know have built up such a resistance that nothing short of a crate of red bull will perk them up. In fact many of them seem unable to achieve what I'd consider normal functioning without a constant supply of the stuff. It's not quite an addiction, but I think you could call it a dependency.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Rune of Doom on Friday September 05 2014, @09:39PM

      by Rune of Doom (1392) on Friday September 05 2014, @09:39PM (#89980)

      Oh, it's an addiction. I'm currently in my third lifetime bout of caffeine addiction, and you're absolutely right about how, once you're good and hooked, it no longer gives you that same boost. (I desperately need to quit again, but I'm in the middle of a large project that won't permit me to take a week off to deal with the headaches, sleeplessness, and irrational anger that are my withdrawal symptoms.)

      As Balzac quoted Rossini on coffee, " "Coffee, is an affair of fifteen or twenty days; just the right amount of time, fortunately, to write an opera." Here's a translation of the whole essay, "The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee": http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/roundtable/the-pleasures-and-pains-of-coffee.php [laphamsquarterly.org]

    • (Score: 1) by dpp on Friday September 05 2014, @10:07PM

      by dpp (3579) on Friday September 05 2014, @10:07PM (#89991)

      Anecdotal addiction observations here...

      I drink a cup every morning - home-brewed, double-shot espresso in a latte.

      What I find interesting about caffeine addiction, possibly different than some other addictive substances, is that my daily "requirement" doesn't increase. I don't desire "more".
      On the occasional Sat morning I'll have an "extra shot" (straight espresso) if say I was up late, or drinking a bit on Fri. Again, along comes Sun and I'm not craving "more".

      I would still say it's an addiction, as in years past when I'd stop drinking coffee completely (for say 1wk break), I'd get a bad headache about 1day+ after stopping. That would go away & I was fine being "off caffeine". However, in those days I was drinking more like 3+ cups per day, and haven't gone cold turkey these past years since I'm on my 1-shot daily.

      Re: red bull
      Was on a biz trip a while back, with some heavy drinking buddies, and we were really hammered with massive hangovers. My buddy brought me my first red bull, followed by a quad-shot latte... Wow - couldn't believe how that helped zap the hangover. Went from "I'm dying...." to "I can function" in like 30-45min. Caffeine is a potent drug...

      Anyhow... just some anecdotal observations on addiction, effects, and resistance.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Lagg on Friday September 05 2014, @10:03AM

    by Lagg (105) on Friday September 05 2014, @10:03AM (#89755) Homepage Journal

    I don't get why people are always talking about energy when it comes to coffee and the negative effects of the caffeine (which are mostly because of the mental stimulation, in reality it relaxes the muscles. Look up coffee enemas, seriously). I sometimes feel as if though I'm the only guy who drinks it for the taste. Caffeine has never really did anything to me (though I wish it did, I miss staying up all night) or for me. I just like the taste of coffee and I have somewhat of a habit of wanting something next to me to drink all the time, so I just go through at least 1 pot (or 12 cups) a day, sometimes two. I know some people who also have this habit just drink soda or beer but I'm not too big of a drinker (of either kind).

    --
    http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
    • (Score: 1) by schad on Friday September 05 2014, @11:57AM

      by schad (2398) on Friday September 05 2014, @11:57AM (#89785)

      You're not the only one who drinks coffee for the taste. You're also not the only one who wants to drink it all day. I have to stop at around 7pm -- of course that means my last cup is made before 7; I'll nurse it until 8 or later -- because it does make me sleep poorly otherwise. Doesn't prevent me from falling asleep, just makes me wake up every 15 minutes for an hour or two.

      Also:

      I just poured my third cup of coffee today. It's mid-afternoon, so I do this knowing that it means I will lie in bed tonight staring at the ceiling entirely unable to sleep after I have fully annoyed my spouse with my inability to cease talking or stop moving.

      Stuff like this blows my mind. I have 7-8 11oz cups a day and don't have any trouble sleeping. Nor do I feel jittery or any of the other stuff that people say happens when you have a lot of caffeine. Obviously people like us have built up a considerable tolerance.

    • (Score: 1) by strength_of_10_men on Friday September 05 2014, @12:19PM

      by strength_of_10_men (909) on Friday September 05 2014, @12:19PM (#89792)
      I'm with you here. I drink a full french press in the morning and then get an espresso drink right after lunch. I want to believe that it makes me more productive and alert, but really, I've gone without coffee for days and haven't felt any worse for it. I think it's the routine and taste that I really enjoy. It's an addiction, but not to the caffeine. Hell, a 15 minute nap does more to perk me up than any amount of coffee.

      And luckily, I've found that coffee/caffeine being a diuretic is negligible for me. I'm able to get most of my fluids in the form of coffee and still have a great workout after work. Who knows, maybe the caffeine might even help there.
      • (Score: 2) by tibman on Friday September 05 2014, @03:59PM

        by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 05 2014, @03:59PM (#89861)

        You're lucky. If i don't drink coffee i am generally grumpy : / It goes away after a few days (the body adjusts?). But i've never had caffeine headaches or anything like that, just grumpiness : ) All i need is one cup though, more than one is great but it'll probably keep me up late (past 1am).

        I agree with you though that a nap is far more beneficial. Coffee is only an assistant

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        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 05 2014, @05:14PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 05 2014, @05:14PM (#89883)

          If i don't drink coffee i am generally grumpy : / It goes away after a few days

          That's called "withdrawal". You have a drug dependency. There's nothing wrong with that, dependency sneaks up on you before you even realize what happened; just be glad its for one of the very few drugs you can use without having to worry about being sent to prison. Most other junkies don't even have the option of seeking help without having to worry about being locked up.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 05 2014, @02:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 05 2014, @02:47PM (#89840)

      If you want a muscle relaxant why not just drink tonic water?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by velex on Friday September 05 2014, @06:55PM

      by velex (2068) on Friday September 05 2014, @06:55PM (#89932) Journal

      Well, I'd like to echo the sentiment that you're not the only one. I drink coffee rarely, although I drink tea on a daily basis. When I drink coffee, I'm expecting a bitter chocolate taste. I prefer Columbian blends to Arabicas. Caffeine has a big effect on me, so I make sure to drink for flavor. That's one addiction I don't care for anymore, but the flavor itself can be very nuanced. I'm up anytime for a good tea or coffee. These substances contain an addictive drug, but they also contain an enormous variety of flavor.

      I've tried decaffeinated coffees and teas, and they're all completely awful.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by dpp on Friday September 05 2014, @10:23PM

      by dpp (3579) on Friday September 05 2014, @10:23PM (#89999)

      I understand what you're saying, but assuming that's caffeinated, I do wonder whether you're chemically addicted vs just "habit" with no effects.
      Re: experiment
      Try not drinking that pot of coffee for several days/a week(?) and see if you feel zero effect. Substitute with hot decaf/herbal drink/such as placebo.
      I'd be VERY surprised if you noticed zero mental/physical effect from stopping that much caffeine cold turkey.

      Re: "drinks it for taste"
      I'm fairly certain a lot of people drink it for the taste.
      After discovering "great coffee" spending a few months in Italy back in the 1990s, I really got into it. Spent almost a year (OCD, I know) researching the best home espresso machine, grinder, tamper...and can hardly drink coffee made in restaurants/coffee shops, with few exceptions. Even only buy beans from one coffee roaster now, roasted within a specific timeframe, and can't believe the difference in quality.

      I think many *start* drinking for taste...but stay for the chemical addiction. ;-)

      • (Score: 2) by Lagg on Saturday September 06 2014, @12:19AM

        by Lagg (105) on Saturday September 06 2014, @12:19AM (#90038) Homepage Journal

        I actually did do something like this because I lost my taste for coffee when I was sick for a while and instead had juice or tea next to me. It worked but was a hassle to make and I still preferred coffee. I probably have a mental addiction to it because of the habit though, but that's an aside. Same thing would happen with drinking water like clockwork the way I do coffee.

        Anyway, nice to see there are plenty of people that drink it for the taste here. That whole stereotype about programmers/geeks/whatever littering their room with mountain dew and bawls gets annoying sometimes.

        --
        http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 05 2014, @11:22AM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday September 05 2014, @11:22AM (#89775) Homepage Journal

    There's no battle. I can function quite well without coffee. I simply do not want to because I enjoy a hot, tasty beverage that knocks the sleep out of my eyes a bit quicker in the morning.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 06 2014, @03:16AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 06 2014, @03:16AM (#90089)

      There was a study, cited on ballsack /., that revealed people who find themselves unable to function in the morning until they've had their first coffee are not actually getting a boost from coffee. They've become reliant on coffee to bring them up to the same level of alertness as those who don't need a cup of coffee in the morning.

      When I wake up, within a few seconds I'm alert, but really you're not getting the sleep knocked out of your eyes quicker - you have to wait until you've boiled the water, brewed the coffee, and finally drunk it before you can begin to absorb it into your bloodstream.

      Not that I give a crap why you drink it, or that you give a crap if I'm awake and alert, just a bit of info you may find interesting. Unfortunately, I can't find the source article or I'd just cite that directly.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bart9h on Friday September 05 2014, @11:38AM

    by bart9h (767) on Friday September 05 2014, @11:38AM (#89780)

    I like coffee (espresso, zero sugar) I does absolutely nothing to my brain, but to please the taste sensors.

    Now, just the smallest hit from the bong, and I have exactly the same effects as stated on the summary.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 05 2014, @04:16PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 05 2014, @04:16PM (#89869)

      Interesting. I have a similar response to grass. I'm the only person I know who has trouble falling asleep after a few hits instead of the opposite response. My mind keeps thinking about things.

      Coffee does have an effect on me. I only drink about 12 oz per (week)day on average to wake me up in the morning, and it doesn't keep me up at 10pm if my last cup was 3pm like in the summary.

      YPMV (Your Physiology May Vary)

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday September 05 2014, @12:25PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday September 05 2014, @12:25PM (#89793)

    "When they talk about drugs, they don't talk about all of them; that's the problem. They don't mention coffee. The low end of the speed spectrum, I grant you. But there are coffee freaks and they're walkin' around; nobody, y'know, worried about it or anything. Mrs. Olsen never tells you about that mild speed lift, y'know...'cause she's shooting freeze dried Folger's, right? You've seen the coffee freak in the office, haven't ya? Guy who drops eight or nine cups every morning. Always in a good mood- "Hi, howarya, warm that up for ya? Ok, hi, howarya, good ta see ya." Always in a nice mood until the coffee urn breaks, man. Then he's the first guy to- "Whaddaya mean broke, man..wha, plug it in, man, turn it on. Holy shit, man. Put some water in.." And he goes out and scores, 'cause he's the one who's hooked."

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Freeman on Friday September 05 2014, @05:59PM

    by Freeman (732) on Friday September 05 2014, @05:59PM (#89902) Journal

    I have never like the taste or even the Smell of Coffee. That being said, I do like some caffeine every now and again with my Soda/Tea. I also drank a lot more caffeinated sodas when I was in College. I have ADHD and caffeine can help with that. I knew that it could help, so I figured I would try some green bean coffee pills that had roughly 200mg caffeine. What happened to me is that I all of a sudden became a lot more irritable and I am usually a fairly pleasant person to be around. My wife noted it and I stopped taking the pills. I also know someone who was a heavy coffee drinker and has problems with high blood pressure. They still drink their cup of coffee in the morning, but their blood pressure is more under control since they stopped drinking coffee heavily. As a side effect, they are also a lot more pleasant to be around. They weren't mean, but they were a lot more irritable when they were drinking that much coffee.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 05 2014, @06:06PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 05 2014, @06:06PM (#89908)

      I've used 200mg tablets (industrial, not green bean or whatever). You have to be careful with those.

      Now I just drink unsweetened iced tea.

    • (Score: 2) by evilviper on Saturday September 06 2014, @06:34AM

      by evilviper (1760) on Saturday September 06 2014, @06:34AM (#90112) Homepage Journal

      Someone who is high-strung to begin with, on a stimulant is going to be bouncing off the walls, and there will be personality side-effects from that.

      But give caffeine to someone who is slow, sedentary and lazy (or just really tired-out) and they'll just be fine, just getting to a more normal balance. Of course the slower and lazier the person, perhaps the more fun to be around. That might be why socialization invariably involves drinking alcohol, which has the opposite effect as caffeine.

      --
      Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
  • (Score: 2) by hash14 on Friday September 05 2014, @07:48PM

    by hash14 (1102) on Friday September 05 2014, @07:48PM (#89952)

    Ditto. Most of these benefits of caffeine (improved energy and focus) can simply be learned through adjusting habits.

    I often find that physical activity and/or a change of scenery do a great job of helping me while I'm working. When I'm tired, when I'm confronted with a problem that I don't know how to solve, or simply when my mind is wandering, I find that going for a 5-10 minute stroll gives me a great readjustment. And I know that I'm going to spend some amount of work time doing things which aren't "productive" (like reading the news and such), but if I try to pretend that it's not there, I know that I just won't get anything done in the mean time. In fact, scratching those itches and then getting back to work often makes me more productive than pretending that they're not there because I'm probably going to do it eventually, but I'm not going to get anything done while ignoring it.

    But to be honest, tiredness and drifting focus are completely natural progressions. Our minds are built to wander because if we didn't, we would never think of ideas or come up with new insights. You can't fight it - you actually have to accept it.

  • (Score: 2) by chewbacon on Friday September 05 2014, @08:15PM

    by chewbacon (1032) on Friday September 05 2014, @08:15PM (#89959)

    What else do you do in bed? Watch tv? Surf the net? Eat? All of these things can confuse your body. I do two things in bed: have sex and sleep. Had to throw in the sex part because I'm sure others would for me. Anyway, for me this means when I lay down at night, my body knows it's time to goto sleep. I clear my head or count the heart beats I hear from my pulsation tinnitus. I usually start to drift off within 10-15 minutes.