Caffeine Alertness Just an Illusion

A recent study suggested wake-up boost from caffeine in coffee may be a placebo effect.
Caffeine Alertness Just an Illusion
COFFEE: That wake-up caffeine boost from a regular cup of coffee in the morning may be just an illusion. (Photos.com)
6/3/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/coffee.jpg" alt="COFFEE: That wake-up caffeine boost from a regular cup of coffee in the morning may be just an illusion. (Photos.com)" title="COFFEE: That wake-up caffeine boost from a regular cup of coffee in the morning may be just an illusion. (Photos.com)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1819049"/></a>
COFFEE: That wake-up caffeine boost from a regular cup of coffee in the morning may be just an illusion. (Photos.com)
That wake-up caffeine boost from a regular cup of coffee in the morning may be just an illusion, according to new research.

Results from a study conducted on 279 people by scientists from Bristol University in the U.K. suggest that the alertness reported by regular coffee drinkers typically ascribed to caffeine may actually just be the reversal of the effects of caffeine withdrawal.

Caffeine is known to be a stimulant and can induce anxiety, but regular coffee consumers develop a tolerance to these effects, report the researchers in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

“Our study shows that we don’t gain an advantage from consuming caffeine—although we feel alerted by it, this is caffeine just bringing us back to normal. On the other hand, while caffeine can increase anxiety, tolerance means that for most caffeine consumers this effect is negligible,” said Peter Rogers, one of the lead authors of the study, in a press release.

In the study, 162 of the participants were non-or-low caffeine consumers and the rest medium-to-high caffeine consumers. Participants had to rate their levels of anxiety, alertness, and headache before and after taking either caffeine or a placebo. Their memory, attentiveness, and vigilance were also assessed by a series of computer-based tasks.

Medium-to-high caffeine consumers who took a placebo reported feeling less alert and had more headaches, said the researchers. For those receiving caffeine, their levels of alertness were the same as the non-to-low consumers who had not consumed any caffeine.