Caffeine: Friend or Foe

by Emily Peraza | Thursday, Oct 05, 2023

With the hustle and bustle of classes, jobs, and extracurriculars; the abundance of adorable coffee shops; the grind culture that pushes people to caffeine to be more “productive”; and the delicious taste of an iced latte or a hot macchiato, consumption of coffee is very prevalent in a college student’s life. While coffee is a wonderful drink and allows caffeine to block off adenosine receptors--which tells your body to head to bed--copious amounts of caffeine can lead to long-term consequences. Copious amounts of caffeine in beverages can really mess up your body's rhythm, increase symptoms of anxiety, and create a dependency. And with this dependency comes many consequences. Personally, my wallet suffers, and I get headaches if I do not drink my regularly scheduled caffeinated drinks (most times). 

For some background information, I started my caffeine problem in 7th grade, when my dad and I would grab our drinks of choice - mine being a frappuccino. It was gradual, but the second that I became a freshman in high school, I always drank some amount of coffee every day before school. My classes started at 7:15 am, so the bus came at some insane hour, and the rest is history. In my sophomore year, COVID hit and threw any semblance of routine and order out of the window, which completely messed me up. I am a very big fan of organization, routine, expectations, and staying within my safe circle for the most part. So imagine my surprise when this chaos ruined my perfectly crafted sleep schedule, workload, etc. Unfortunately, I started using coffee as a crutch to be able to have one thing that has stayed the same throughout the years. With my usual orders and preferences over the years, I have compiled some researched facts: 


  • 400 milligrams of caffeine for an adult (on average) is the maximum
    • However, varying levels of sensitivity, body weight, and metabolism come into play when determining your tolerance.
  • A medium Dunkin cold brew has 260 mg of caffeine.
  • A grande cold brew from Starbucks has 205 mg of caffeine.
  • Nitro cold brew is a completely new world that I recommend nobody delves into unless there are outstanding circumstances.
  • A cup of black tea can have about 50 mg of caffeine.

The impact of coffee on my life has been very helpful at times, but I realized it was getting a little out of hand last semester; I would drink a few cups throughout the day, and I realized my heart would beat incredibly fast when I laid down for bed. It amplified my nerves and I was more hyperactive and stumbled over my words more than usual. 

Caffeinated drinks had impacted my performance in my classes because I would stay up late and brush off the lack of sleep to coffee. This way of thinking is not beneficial at all and impacted my classwork and my work at my physical activity performances. I remember speaking too fast in my classes later in the day, rushing around and not warming up just to get rid of the excess energy, and then sweating more and being overly anxious.

This just serves as a reminder to be mindful of what we put in our bodies because caffeine can also alter your natural sleep schedule, can cause digestive issues with its acidic qualities, and can lead to an addiction. Caffeine is a helpful tool when it comes to fighting migraines, but the symptoms of not consuming any can also lead to migraines. 

Lastly, there are ways to stop a dependency on caffeine! A basic technique is to slowly lessen the amount you consume for about 2-3 weeks. For example, one can drink less coffee or dilute their coffee to decrease the amount they consume. Starbucks has a ratio offer if you ask, where one can order half-decaf and half-caffeinated coffee to ease the burden. Switching forms, say from coffee to tea, may be more effective if it is more of a social occasion. It is not impossible!

All in all, caffeine is an amazing tool to get work done and push through those afternoon slumps. However, it is double-edged sword in the sense that it can become an addiction in a sense, and can impact your well-being and health.

 


To read some more on this topic, here are some more resources: