Should I Start Drinking Coffee?

Before I was able to drive, my Dad would always take me to school. I never took the bus in the morning, or carpooled with anyone else. I would estimate that up until the time I finally got my license, my dad dropped me off every single morning, and we both loved it. Some mornings, my dad would decide to stop at Starbucks, and send me in to get it for him, and I still remember his order today. A grande, non-fat, no whip moca. He would always say it was necessary for him to wake up and have a productive morning and day. Now that I am a freshman at Penn State, I notice how many people drink coffee. I did not know coffee was so crucial to so many people being productive.  The line outside the HUB is always incredibly long, and every dorm on my floor expect for one has a Keurig, or a coffee maker.

Personally, I have not hopped on the daily routine of drinking coffee in the morning. No matter how hard my room mate tries, I always deny the energy and plan on dragging that out for as long as I possibly can. As I was trying to brainstorm blog topics, I saw my room mate drinking coffee at 10 o’clock at night while doing homework. It made me wonder if drinking coffee daily could help or harm a person’s daily life.

We all knew that coffee is addictive, and can be unhealthy if consumed multiple times a day, but would it help me do better on Andrew’s tests? According to Harvard School of Public Health, 54 percent of Americans over the age of 18 drink on average 3.1 cups a day, and spend $2.45 per cup. Jen Saunders, a writer for Our Everyday Life, writes that a study was published in the Nutrition Journal saying 51 percent of 496 college students used coffee or other beverages containing caffeine to help them study for last minute test preparation. John Wiley and Sons came to the conclusion that coffee gave the students increased alertness and improved cognitive responses. 19268-students-computer-coffee-1-940x501

Of course, coffee is not all good for you. Without knowing your limits, coffee can also have adverse affects on daily performance or health. A student or person may have an extreme sense of alertness or focus after drinking coffee, but this feeling does not last. The brain and body can only function at a higher level for a certain amount of time. After this rush is over, a student can feel tired or have a lack of motivation to do anything.

In my opinion there are clear positives and negatives to coffee. The only way to keep it beneficial to a person’s daily life is with clear understanding of one’s limitations. Over consumption of coffee clearly leads to addiction or a  drop in motivation to get work done. If used correctly, coffee could be a great way to jump start my morning and help me battle through tough tests. This is a link as to why college students need coffee to survive.

Sources:

Coffee by the Numbers

http://oureverydaylife.com/coffee-consumption-affects-college-students-tests-12614.html

Picture: http://www.skilledup.com/insights/news-rundown-credit-transfer-problem

8 thoughts on “Should I Start Drinking Coffee?

  1. Jordan Smith

    I have never had coffee in my life. I usually wake up extremely tired, but then a shower and the rush to get to class on time usually wakes me up pretty well. I makes sense when you said that you will likely lack motivation or energy to do stuff later in the day. So it seems that it’s really up to your schedule. Would you rather have more energy in the morning or afternoon? If you have no classes in the afternoon and can take a nap, then coffee might not be such a bad idea.

  2. Reetu Shah

    Good! Stay away from this deadly drink. Also half the people on this blog who say they need it in the morning, don’t really need it, they are just addicted. I only say that because I too was once addicted to coffee. I used to have 2 White mocha lattes a day. Then i went to green tea, and now I don’t need anything. And like you I also drag on through the day. The long days are the most interesting, I will get through half the day and think “Hey! I need a coffee, I have a 6-9 class”. I never ending up getting the coffee, and I am fine throughout my day. Sometimes I even buy the coffee and don’t even drink it. I swear its a psychological thing!

    Now to get into the science of it!…

    I was just reading an article on how serious trying to cut down coffee was. Here is the article…
    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/this-is-how-your-brain-becomes-addicted-to-caffeine-26861037/?no-ist
    It talked about how Caffeine withdrawal can be considered a mental disorder!

    I think it would be an interesting experiment to see how people react to not having coffee anymore. This would be an observational study. If I were to do this study I would take occasional coffee drinkers, just because they aren’t that addicted. Lets say 10 people. Tell them to stop drinking coffee. Actually, no caffeine all together, because green tea also helps.I would say over the period of 5 days. Since you cant watch them constantly, whether they are telling the truth, is a 3rd variable. But also, you can tell them to write in a journal. Make sure they right how they feel, and how badly they want coffee. Is there anything going wrong emotionally, or physically?
    This is more to receive data, you cant really get hard core facts. It would give you a greater knowledge of how the coffee in a way is affecting these people!

  3. rlw5445

    I like you am in the small minority of people who have yet to jump on the coffee bandwagon. It amazes me to see the line outside of Starbucks and Dunkin every morning on my way to class. Whenever I ask my friends as to why they drink it, I am met with the same responses that you mentioned earlier “I need it to wake up” or “I need it to stay awake to study”. The second response is one I am frequented with more often. However after doing some research I found this very useful article which suggests six alternatives to coffee to help you stay alert while studying. They include water, milk, green tea and others. If you wish to avoid the coffee bandwagon and learn more about their benefits I highly recommend visiting this link http://www.kaptest.com/blog/grad-school-insider/2014/09/25/6-healthy-study-drinks-better-coffee/.

  4. Derek William Drotman

    I think your blog needs to include the benefits to drinking coffee in the morning as well at night but also the negative effects coffee can have on your body. Before college I never had coffee in my life, now that I’m in my first semester here I have started to have ice coffee at night in order to give myself some energy and to keep me up for those long nights in the library. Personally I wish you talked more of the effects it can have on your body as well as if it actually does help your body function. Did you find any studies that show coffee is a placebo and isn’t needed daily for a person?

  5. Raegan S Pechar

    Honestly, the moment I read this title I went and made myself a cup of coffee (haha). Coffee is a part of my daily routine, it’s not that I CAN’T focus without it, it’s just I feel as though it benefits me more when it is a part of my morning. Although, I have definitely felt the negative sides of coffee: the headaches, fatigue, sudden crashing, etc. I would like to look more in depth at this subject, quite frankly because if the studies how I’m hurting myself by drinking coffee, I will be more inclined to stop. I found an article of some negative side effects that could potentially be explored: https://www.healthambition.com/negative-effects-of-coffee/

  6. Sean Kyle Reilly

    Hey Dominic!

    I also wrote a post about coffee and caffeine in general, and too find myself rarely, if ever, drinking coffee unless it is absolutely necessary. I found, just like you, that there are many benefits and downsides to drinking, and even relying like your father did, on coffee everyday. What I would suggest before hopping on the daily Espresso Express like a majority of students is to try and drink a lot more water during the day.

    Most of the time when we feel sluggish, it is due to being dehydrated or because of a lack of sleep. By taking the time to drink the recommended roughly 3 Liters per day, or even the popular “8oz. 8 Times a Day,” most individuals see a substantial difference in health and energy. Also, try to drink a glass of water first thing in the morning, and even keep one glass near your bed for when you wake up in the morning. After sleeping for a few hours, there is no doubt you are dehydrated! For more info on water and its benefits, feel free to check out this link – http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256.

    Otherwise, I found your post to be informative, but maybe try and shoot for more sources and content next time. Best of luck with the rest of the class!

  7. cmt5658

    I am a huge coffee drinker, and now that I have meal points, I find myself drinking coffee usually at least twice a day. I know this is super unhealthy, but I find it necessary to stay up. Sometimes I feel like the coffee however, does not actually wake me up, but the idea of coffee. I research more into this to find out if the energy boost was actually just in my head. This article (http://bodyodd.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/09/02/7562142-coffee-buzz-may-be-all-in-your-head?lite) explains that as long as someone thinks there getting there caffeine boost, then they will automatically feel alert and happy, which really makes me question al the cups of coffee I drink.

  8. Robert McCarthy

    Personally, I don’t drink coffee often because I often notice myself feeling sluggish the next day around the same time that I drank coffee the day prior. I have also heard that coffee addiction can be a much more serious problem than we like to imagine. I know anecdotal evidence is poor, but I have heard stories of those who were frequent coffee drinkers trying to go cold turkey and the results were very poor. One instance that I heard of involved a man who tried to go from several cups of coffee a day to none at all, and he experienced serious physical withdrawal symptoms such as vomiting and shivering. Do you have any information as to how legitimate these stories are and how bad physical dependence on coffee can become?

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