You know how you in desperation after a night of little or no sleep (thanks, kids!) reach for coffee to feel human again?
As in; bad night, coffee, bad night again, more coffee. And on and on and on it goes.
Well, we have got some bad news for you, fellow coffee addicts.
According to a new study from the Walter Reed Institute of Research, the old-coffee-helps-us-wake-up e trick only works for the first two nights of little or broken sleep. After that, you’re kinda out of luck.
Whaaat?!
The study followed 48 participants who each limited themselves to five hours of sleep for five nights in a row. Half of them took a placebo and half drank a big cup of coffee, two times a day. And this is what happened: For the first two days, the caffeine group scored better on aptitude tests and reported feeling happier than the placebo participants. But after three days, the two groups flip-flopped, with the coffee drinkers’ mental alertness dropping drastically–and overall levels of “crankiness” noted.
What you can take from this is that coffee will still work for you in a pinch, but in the long-term, you really need to try to aim for a good night’s sleep.
Yes, because that is as easily done as it is said.
*cries into morning latte
(Feature image via Alfred Coffee/Instagram)
