Being a college student and a Starbucks barista, I know how important caffeine (mainly coffee, forget soda and caffeinated teas) is to function and maintain. I have to have some in the morning, mid-day, and even sometimes at night if I need to whip out an assignment that I definitely procrastinated on. So, we’re all aware of coffee’s energizing effects. But now, Johns Hopkins University has recently released a study that further enhances the importance of that morning cup of joe. According to JHU, caffeine positively effects your memory and enhances particular memories up to twenty-four hours after it is consumed.
According to Michael Yassa, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at JHU, caffeine makes it so the brains reduces the amount of forgetting it does within a twenty-four hour span, so you’re more likely to remember the event in the long run.
I think the fact that this is proven and all is awesome, but tell me why I can’t remember half of the math formulas I’m taught even though I always have a cup of coffee at my side?
In order to reach the conclusion that caffeine does indeed enhance your memory, researchers tested salivary samples as well as giving one set of individuals caffeine and the other set a placebo. After doing so, the participants studied a set of images for five minutes. They came back the next and were presented with the same set of images, but with new and similar images to the previous day mixed in. Out of the placebo group and the caffeinated group, the caffeinated bunch were able to tell apart the similar and new images from the images they saw the previous day before.
Essentially, caffeine is the modern-day student’s remembrall (if you don’t know what that is, please go buy yourself the entire Harry Potter series). I’ve gotten plenty of criticism for the amount of coffee I drink, ranging from “you’ll become dependent on it,” to “it’ll yellow your teeth,” but year after year I’m seeing more pros then cons. Not only is coffee a fat burning agent, but it also can be positive addition to a detox diet. Caffeine also improves stamina, and has even been linked to potentially warding off Alzheimer’s in some people.
If drinking my regular two grande sized cups of coffee a day is going to slightly improve my memory and continue to be a fat burning agent, then I’m all for it. Give me caffeine, or give me death.