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Study: Don’t count on caffeine to fight sleep deprivation
- tinus_hn 5y agoA drug that causes you to think you have more energy doesn’t magically actually give you more energy. I didn’t read the paper but I hope this article significantly undersells it.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- eurasiantiger 5y agoI hope someone repeats this study with coffee, adjusting the dose to match the amount of caffeine. The results would be different due to the presence of psychoactive MAOIs in coffee.
- xattt 5y agoI was not aware of this. Can you elaborate on this?
- meowface 5y agoLike a lot of psychoactive substances, caffeine evolved as a pesticide in plants. Those plants tend to also evolve a lot of other compounds that modulate the effect of the pesticide. (I would guess there's probably some probabilistic/natural selection reasons for why this tends to happen.) That's why cannabis plants contain way more psychoactive molecules than just THC, for example, and why the experience of taking pure THC generally feels different from consuming cannabis. Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is an enzyme that helps break down certain neurotransmitters (monoanimes, such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine). Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI) inhibit the activity of MAO, which can lead to less breakdown of those neurotransmitters, and so a higher neurotransmitter concentration. This can have a synergistic and potentiating (or, if you're an insect, an additionally poisonous) effect for certain substances like caffeine. A certain amount of caffeine consumed along with MAOIs found in the coffee plant (e.g. from drinking coffee) could lead to more dopamine and norepinephrine concentration than the same amount of caffeine alone, for example. This is also why it can be very dangerous to combine MAOIs with certain other substances. For example, combining it with tryptophan can lead to potentially fatal serotonin syndrome. Coffee plants also contain much more than just caffeine and MAOIs. For example, theobromine, which is also found in chocolate (and which is responsible for harming or killing dogs if they consume chocolate). I think this is the case for most psychoactive plants that people consume. You're typically getting a complex cocktail of many different molecules which all may have mutually modulating effects. This is why different coffee and cannabis strains can potentially cause somewhat different subjective experiences; they have different ratios of all the different compounds.
- intricatedetail 5y agoIt amazes me that scientists are so stubborn on single molecule trials... why?
- meowface 5y agoIt's easier to reduce the things you're testing to one single molecule, rather than something highly variable. But it's true that coffee is a different psychoactive cocktail than caffeine.
- Zababa 5y agoIt's a widely popular legal and prescription-free stimulant, and usually consummed in a safer way than nicotine, another widely popular legal and prescription-free stimulant.
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- hansvm 5y agoThe US military has been doing studies on caffeine for ages. There's a huge body of research confirming effects like this -- as a rule of thumb, caffeine can improve many simple motor functions under sleep deprivation and can't do much for most higher cognitive functions. Other factors (e.g., typical dosage or how recently you slept) impact the details substantially.
- hidden_sheepman 5y agoI think I care either way, there is something about that cup of hot black coffee while digging into an unsolved problem.
- cardiffspaceman 5y agoI think this is also my opinion. In my own words, when I want to work on a weekend problem, I like to prepare with a latte, which provides a little focus and euphoria. I don't want to have a regular latte habit.
- netizen-936824 5y agoThat something is likely physical dependence on a substance to get anything done
- Tagbert 5y agoIt is, at most, a very mild dependence. Some people do a lot of hand-wringing over the idea that caffeine is a drug, but any negative effects you might expect from a drug are easy to deal with.
- jrootabega 5y agoYeah, the ritual of preparing, holding, pausing to drink is a big part of it. It's not just about the caffeine. The same ritual would work with mint tea.
- FractalHQ 5y agoAs someone who recently gave up coffee and is trying to replace it with tea- I can confirm this.
- darthrupert 5y agoNot having to deal with withdrawal is a superb intellectual boost, certainly.
- andyana 5y ago
- dakial1 5y agoI personally don't like coffee but I drink it just to get rid of the drowsiness feeling in the morning and after lunch. Before I started doing that (I started drinking coffee at the age of 25/26) I was always dragging myself around post lunch, with heavy postprandial somnolence. It was really a pain. Never thought it would give me any cognitive boost...
- wodenokoto 5y agoHave you considered tea? I don’t know if you’d like it better, but there are other caffeinated beverages than coffee.
- dakial1 5y agoSometimes I drink black tea (earl grey or something similar), but I don't feel it has the same effect as coffee. On a quick search here it seems coffee might have almost twice (or more) as much caffeine as coffee, so that might be it. Which is sad, because I actually like tea better.
- jjeaff 5y agoCoffee is not great for you (though there is some disagreement on that), it stains your teeth and it gives you bad breath. If you don't even like it, then just get the equivalent amount of caffeine in pill form. Even better if you get it with l-theanine as it supposedly smoothes out the peaks and troughs. I'm sure the caffeine pills are cheaper than coffee and you can save some time in your morning routine.
- dakial1 5y agoI've thought about that but never went through with it. I think I got used to the routine and ritual of drinking coffee. But might try the pill, as nespresso pods are expensive as hell.