Those energy drinks and coffee you are drinking are not helping you focus: they actually steal your sleep, destroy your attention span, and generally ruin your life.

Last summer break was the busiest time of my life. To keep up with all the hagwon work and summer school program exams, I began to rely on the cheap 2$ energy drinks and coffee from the local convenience store. The first week felt amazing. I could spend all night working and still ace the next day’s exam. But soon, I needed two or three drinks just to feel normal. My body would suddenly crash in the middle of class, and I realized soon that I could not focus during class nor remember anything I had learnt a few hours ago. 

Caffeine is an adenosine receptor antagonist, meaning it binds to the same receptors as adenosine (the brain chemical that signals tiredness), blocking its action. According to Oxford Academic, this effect impairs sleep homeostasis, and high doses (400 mg) consumed even 12 hours before bed have been shown to significantly reduce total sleep time and, critically, decrease the proportion of restorative deep sleep (slow-wave sleep).

This makes sense though: the motivation for consuming caffeine is to enhance awakeness and alertness. However, when you drink too much, the brain compensates for the intake by increasing the number of adenosine receptors (a process called upregulation). This counter-mechanism is the basis of caffeine tolerance, forcing users to consume more and more just to achieve the same level of alertness, thus escalating the cycle of dependency.

While caffeine is known to improve alertness, high consumption can lead to symptoms of anxiety, leading to jitters and panic attacks. Furthermore, studies on younger populations have found that chronic caffeine intake negatively correlates with important mental functions, like working memory, or processing speed.

For teenagers, whose brains are still undergoing significant development, the chronic arousal caused by caffeine  can affect neuroplasticity (how well your brain develops) and brain processes like synaptic pruning (getting rid of excess mental functions). This interference with the brain’s natural development cycle can pose a risk to long-term cognitive well-being.

Now, you have to promise yourself: no caffeine in the evening or night, and see your sleep quality increase. Real energy comes from good sleep, not chemicals that cause anxiety and alter blood sugar levels and heart rate. Instead of a can of energy drink, just drink a cup of water, or take a 5 minute walk that awakens your body more naturally.