Coffee keeps the college students running

Published May 12, 2008
Taunton Daily Gazette, Education section cover story
http://www.tauntongazette.com/

By Kristen Masley
EASTON — It is 2 o’clock in the morning at Stonehill College and Christine Stewart wakes up to a quiet campus.
She lies in bed for a few minutes, then gets up. Her body, she says later, is awake. Her brain is not.
She pulls out a bowl of cereal and milk. She makes a couple comments to the room, although her roommate is asleep. After her late-night snack, Stewart climbs back into bed and listens to her iPod. She eventually falls back asleep.
This is Christine Stewart’s life as a coffee junkie. She loves the taste of coffee. She consumes about four cups of coffee a day; three in the morning and one in the afternoon.
“I look forward to having that first cup of coffee when I wake up,” says Stewart, “It is what gets me through my day.”
Despite her love of coffee, Stewart worries over the quality and quantity of sleep she gets at night.
More than once Stewart wakes up in the middle of the night, usually in a subconscious awakened state.
The amount of caffeine Stewart consumes from coffee is about 500 milligrams per day. In each cup of coffee, there is roughly around 135 milligrams of caffeine, according to MedicineNet. She also drinks different kinds of coffee during the day, which varies the caffeine dose that she consumes.
The different levels that the coffee bean is roasted and brewed can affect the caffeine level, according to James Hayes-Bohanan a geography professor at Bridgewater State College that specializes in the study of coffee and geography.
All that can translates into sleep problems The varied and long-term usage of caffeine can cause losses of sleep, according to the John Hopkins Medical Center.
Caffeine is used to stimulate the central nervous system of the body. It gives the human a body an extra boost of adrenaline and allows a person to focus and be more alert according to the National Sleep Foundation.
Although caffeine can be used to give someone an extra use of energy, studies show that caffeine has a direct effect on sleeping.
According to Sanford Bolton, Ph.D. and Gary Null, M.S caffeine seems to inhibit deeper stages of sleep as opposed to disturbances of the REM stage.
The times that Stewart wakes up in the middle of the night can be attributed to the amount of caffeine she consumes throughout the day. The National Sleep Foundation says caffeine blocks sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain. An excessive amount of caffeine can prevent a person from quality sleep.
But caffeine is not the only factor that can cause a loss of sleep.
“I have at least four cups of coffee (a day),” says BSC’s Hayes-Bohanan “And I sleep perfectly fine.” So what else could be hurting Stewart’s sleep?She says that she has a heightened anxiety throughout the day that keeps her mind running even when she’s sleeping.
Every morning when she wakes up, the first thoughts that race to her mind are “What do I have to get done today?”
“I worry about the next day and what happened the day before,” says Stewart. “I think about school, my internship, family, and conflicts with friends.”
Don’t rule out coffee just yet, one study found. The John Hopkins Medical Center found in a study that people who have a caffeine intake of 200 milligrams or more have increased anxiety ratings.
Caffeine has been known to increase stress and anxiety, making Stewart the perfect candidate for a lack of sleep.
Stewart says she wants to start trying to cut down on the amount of caffeine she has in her diet.
Studies by the Psychiatric Association on caffeine withdrawal symptoms show that there is evidence of physical dependence. Stewart may have a harder time cutting down on caffeine because she uses it not only because she likes the taste but because it gives her an extra boost to complete her day.
Besides attending school, Stewart is a tour guide for the school, exercises for about an hour every day, and was a peer mentor. She needs caffeine in her life in order to have the energy to do all of these activities.
“I feel like I can’t function without it,” says Stewart.
Limiting the consumption of caffeine will come with side effects including excessive sleepiness, lack of concentration, and muscle cramps, according to Pegasus NLP.
The most common side effect is a dramatic drop in blood pressure, due to the body becoming over-sensitive to adenosine that cause more blood to gather in the head producing a migraine-like headache. Although it may be difficult for awhile, Stewart said it may better to limit how much coffee she drinks today and hope for better sleep for her nights.