Do you regularly work late and procrastinate your homework until late at night? Then have to wake up early to get ready for your 8am, have class until the afternoon, and then work until late again. To try and help you get through your overly packed schedule you find yourself drinking 300-450mg of caffeine throughout the day. Oh, just me? Any who, much to my dismay I decided to look into the effects of my one true love, caffeine.
To understand why so many people love their energy drinks and coffee, we have to understand how caffeine works. Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors and throughout the day adenosine will normally accumulate to make us feel sleepy. So, drinking caffeine makes us feel alert/not feel the sleepiness. Thanks to Dr. Campisi in lecture, we also know that caffeine is a diuretic. Another big thing with caffeine is that humans are inherently social creatures and who doesn't love getting Dutch Bros with their friends.
In a study posted this past January, researchers studied 41 healthy adults who stayed awake for 38 hours. The participants completed both a caffeine and placebo condition while researchers measured their blood pressure, heart rate, blood vessel function, and inflammation (Mateo et al., 2026). They found that sleep deprivation increased diastolic and systolic blood pressure. Then with the addition of caffeine, it amplified these increases and was associated with higher levels of IL-6 (a proinflammatory cytokine, shoutout Dr. Sterling's immunology class).
Caffeine may help us feel more awake, but it can't supplement a good night's sleep. This study highlights that feeling alert is not the same as being physiologically recovered. As I type this, I am drinking my morning Celsius and going to hope it doesn't affect me because I am pure of heart.
Sources:
Mateo L, Tardo-Dino P-E, Gomez-Merino D, Drogou C, Josse P-E, Erblang M, Colin P, Erkel MC, Van Beers P, Leger D, Bourrilhon C, Chennaoui M and Sauvet F (2026) Both acute and chronic caffeine consumption affect cardiovascular responses to total sleep deprivation. Front. Cardiovasc. Med. 13:1718154. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2026.1718154
Do you believe that energy drinks cause more harm than good compared to coffee beans? I know a lot of people taking up more and more energy drinks because of how much more caffeine is in one can compared to a cup of coffee. Do you also believe that throughout the decade, there will be more energy drinks with perhaps above 300mg of caffeine?
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