Coffee Makes You Study More
There’s a reason why people around the world love the smell and taste of coffee. Its robust flavor is warm and comforting. It’s also the perfect pick-me-up, whether it’s early in the morning or during the afternoon doldrums. Students, in particular, drink coffee almost all day long, which is why coffee shops are abundant in high school areas and college campuses.
The caffeine found in coffee is a natural stimulant that can provide a student with a shot of energy. It also has a positive effect on a person’s mood and can increase alertness. While there are other advantages to drinking coffee, students will undoubtedly be interested to know that it can also help improve one’s performance in school. Here’s how coffee makes you study more:
7 Reasons Coffee Makes You Study More
- Boosts Concentration and Focus: Coffee can help students have a more productive time when studying. There’s no denying that there are so many things that can distract one from studying – talking with friends, social media, etc. Coffee can help boost one’s concentration, ensuring that the student is focusing on what he or she needs to learn.
- Enhances Memory: A study conducted in 2009 revealed that the caffeine in coffee could enhance a student’s memory, which is a great advantage to those studying for exams. There are two types of memory – Short Term Memory (STM) and Long-Term Memory (LTM). The former helps in learning new materials while the latter retains details and information that could be recalled later.
Researchers from Hamline University found that students who ingested caffeine received higher scores on a recall test that students who ingested a placebo. The caffeine increases alertness and reduces fatigue, which helps your STM to retain more information. This boost is how coffee makes you study more. Drinking coffee while studying can increase how much data your memory can maintain, thus helping you learn faster and understand concepts better.
- Repairs Damage DNA: Research has shown that our DNA’s brain cells break every time we learn something new. However, drinking coffee can help repair some of this damage. According to Dr. Li-Huei Tsai, a neuroscience professor and the director of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, whenever young people learn something, their brain cause DNA breaks. Luckily, cells can repair this damage quickly to maintain the system’s functionality. But aging and some genetic issues can compromise this repair system, which could lead to memory loss or dementia. However, a 2016 study published in the Molecular Nutrition and Food Research journal showed that drinking coffee can minimize DNA breakage in just under two hours.
- Increases Alertness Levels: Caffeine as a stimulant helps boost alertness and can keep you awake, thereby making it easier to learn, process and retain information. After all, staying alert longer is also handy when performing detailed and tedious tasks like reading a thick textbook.
- Helps Individuals Learn Faster: Studies have shown that the caffeine in coffee can make a student more alert and focused. But studies have also shown that coffee can also make learning a new task more natural, as long as the timing is right. A study in the Nature Neuroscience journal implied that ingesting caffeine after learning something new or doing a memory challenge can boost the consolidation of memories. Researchers from John Hopkins conducted an experiment where subjects were made to perform several learning tasks. The caffeinated subjects showed they were able to retain the memory of what they learned better than the group given a placebo.
- Improves a Student’s Mood: The stress of studying, finishing projects and taking exams can take an emotional toll on any student. Taking a short coffee break can help the student get back on track. Aside from the short rest, the caffeine in coffee can improve a student’s mood and will make focusing on lessons go much smoother.
- Helps Deal With Sleep Deprivation: In college, you’ll experience days full of activities and little sleep, especially when you’re facing a project deadline or a major exam. The smell of coffee can revive you when you have been deprived of eight hours of sleep. In a study done at Seoul National University, researchers examined the brains of mice who were stressed from sleep deprivation. They found out that when exposed to the smell of coffee, the subjects’ brain proteins linked to that form of stress showed positive changes.
Recommended Amount of Coffee for Students
It’s clear that coffee can help you do better in school, as long you stick to the recommended amount. The U.S National Library of Medicine has determined that 250 mg of caffeine a day is safe. This amount is equal to three 8 oz cups of coffee. Conversely, the Mayo Clinic has stated that four or more cups of coffee, or more than 600 mg of caffeine daily, will negatively impact the adult body.
However, caffeine intake in children and teenagers is different from that of adults. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that teens 13 to 18 should limit their caffeine consumption to about 100 mg. This is the equivalent of a cup of coffee, three cans of soda, or two cups of tea.
Warning Signs to Watch Out For
They say that too much of a good thing becomes bad. The same can be said for coffee. While there’s no denying that it’s a good idea to understand how coffee makes you study more, you should also be mindful of the warning signs from drinking too much coffee. Students who have too much caffeine in their system can experience anxiety, irritability, jitters, muscle tremors restlessness, rapid heart rate, stomach cramps, and an upset stomach. These symptoms can affect one’s cognitive performance and make it hard for the student to focus on their school work.
Caffeine is also a known diuretic, which means it can also result in headaches and dehydration if ingested in high doses.
There have been numerous studies conducted on coffee and how it affects people. The amount comes as no surprise, considering the popularity of the drink. If you’re a student, it will serve you well if you know how coffee makes you study more. This will allow you to make good use of caffeine intake and ensure that you do well in your studies.