Effects of Caffeine

I choose the Caffeine Effects… article as my secondary article and I found the study pretty interesting because I never really realized that caffeine could have such adverse effects on sleep even when taken as far as 6 hours prior to bedtime. As an occasional coffee drinker and a self-proclaimed “chocoholic” this article really opened my eyes to some of the reasons why I probably haven’t been getting a full night of rest. I notice that I am constantly waking up between 3 and 4 am almost every night and after reading this article I can understand what might be part of the problem.

Some things I found strange is that they let the participants consume caffeine, other than the pill that was given, throughout the day. It kind of made me wonder like wouldn’t the extra amount of caffeine skew the data? The article even stated that that caffeine has a “high variability in the elimination half-life” I would just assume that it would be difficult to tell if the data collected was solely based from the caffeine pill or have the trace amount of excess caffeine included from earlier that day. Something else I am not too sure on is what “latency” of sleep is, my guess is that it is the length at which you are able to stay asleep but I am not sure. Another thing would be the “Latin Square Design”, this method of testing was also used in the primary article I had to read, Tennis, where they briefly explained what the set up was but I am still not 100% clear on the concept.

The article affects the public in a major way, an easy example and probably a personal one would be us as college students. Some of us could never fathom making it through the day let alone to our first class without a couple cups of coffee or a few shots of espresso throughout the day. And this cycle of caffeine intake lasts all day when projects and homework start to pile up and we must work long nights and we definitely lose countless hours of sleep because of it. This article also affects your everyday working man (or woman) when deadlines need to be met, papers need to be graded, or you just need that extra boost to help you have enough energy after work to play with your children. Caffeine is in our everyday lives and is something that most can’t live without, the article is a good read for everyone, it definitely gives you something to think about and maybe even consider changing some habits.