Caffeinated drinks such as coffee and soda are the pick-me-ups of choice for many people, but too much caffeine can cause nervousness and sleep problems.
Caffeine Zone software app developed by Penn State researchers, can help people determine when caffeine may give them a mental boost and when it could hurt their sleep patterns. The software takes information on caffeine use and integrates it with information on the effects of caffeine to produce a graph of how the caffeine will affect the users over time.
"Many people don't understand how caffeine levels in their bloodstream go up and how they go down," said Frank Ritter, professor of information sciences and technology, psychology, and computer science and engineering. "It's important to understand the effect that caffeine can have at these various levels."
Ritter, who worked with Kuo-Chuan (Martin) Yeh, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, said that if a person drinks a cup of coffee rapidly, they will experience a spike in mental alertness, but enough of the drug can linger in the bloodstream to cause sleep problems hours later.
The researchers used peer-reviewed studies as input data to determine that caffeine drinkers with between 200 and 400 milligrams of caffeine in their blood stream are in an optimal mental alertness zone. For sleep, the researchers set a lower threshold of 100 milligrams. Drinkers may have sleep problems if they remain above this.
The researchers, who reported their findings at the 2011 Augmented Cognition International Conference, said people who drink too much caffeine, too quickly, may face other problems. A spike of caffeine above the optimal level can cause nausea and nervousness.
Maintaining proper caffeine balance is important for many workers. For example, sailors on submarines must carefully watch their sleep patterns because their sleeping and waking patterns vary each day, Ritter said.
"If they, and others who drin
'/>"/>
| Contact: Matt Swayne mls29@psu.edu 814-865-9481 Penn State Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology news :
1. Carbonized coffee grounds remove foul smells
2. UC Riverside bug expert visits Rwanda to solve mystery surrounding specialty coffee sector
3. It all depends on the coffee
4. Got a craving for fast food? Skip the coffee, study says
5. Coffee berry borer in Hawaii and prospects for control
6. Coffee, energy drinkers beware: Many mega-sized drinks loaded with sugar, MU nutrition expert says
7. Roasting coffee beans a dark brown produces valued antioxidants: UBC food scientists
8. On organic coffee farm, complex interactions keep pests under control
9. Shade-coffee farms support native bees that maintain genetic diversity in tropical forests
10. New global coffee research initiative announced
11. UCLA researchers show how worlds smallest coffee ring may help biosensors detect disease
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |