Coffee And College Students

Introduction:

For many college students, coffee is the most valuable and important beverage. Coffee consumption is at an all-time high. College students are becoming more and more dependent on their morning orders, and over one-half of college students consume caffeinated beverages daily. The majority of college students consume caffeine through a variety of reasons; for example, they might pursue relief from fatigue, a memory boost, or even a social interaction tool. Moreover, while balancing school pressure and part-time employment, college coffee drinkers can encounter problems with coffee when it is consumed close to bedtime. Due to enhanced entropy caused by caffeine, students may lie awake at night and unable to fall asleep. This paper will focus on whether coffee is good for college students or not, and can coffee help them to improve their school performance?

Background and Significance

Due to a decrease in sleep and an increase in activities, many college students drink caffeinated beverages in order to make it through the day. Between school, friends, and extracurriculars, it can often feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to check everything off of one’s to-do list, while also getting a substantial amount of sleep. Most college students have decided to rely on the boost they get from drinking coffee in order to get their work done. Additionally, because many children grow up seeing their parents drink coffee, coffee habits are beginning at younger ages in the United States.

However, is coffee good for college students? Most people agree that 3-4 cups of coffee won’t pose any threats to their health. While many deny the addictive effects of caffeine or even ignore them, countless studies have concluded otherwise. Many believe that it helps keep them awake and alert for studying, for students who are tired after a late night of studying or a busy schedule that has the part-time job on the weekend. Nevertheless, it really depends on the amount of consuming, and caffeine affects people differently.

Preliminary Literature Review:

1. Intake of Caffeine from All Sources and Reasons for Use by College Students, Caroline R. Mahoney, Grace E. Giles, Bernadette P. Marriott.
2. Discussion of Causes and Consequences of Sleepiness Among College Students, Shelley D Hershner, Ronald D Chervin.

Caffeine, in any form, was consumed by 92% of college students in the past few years. Students provided multiple reasons for caffeine using including to feel awake, improve concentration, the social aspects of consumption, alleviate stress, and increase physical energy. A study conducted by Christopher Fisher, Ph.D., found that drinking coffee can “improve cognitive performance in terms of sustained attention and working memory by increasing of the areas of the brain responsible for these two functions.” As we all know, in order to keep college students awake and focus their ambitions, coffee helps fight sleep deprivation, which is a necessity for many college students.

Among college students, one of the most common causes of drinking coffee is daytime sleepiness and sleep deprivation. This paper will also review common causes of sleep deprivation as well as the prevalence and influence of sleep disorders among college students.

Research Question

• Is coffee able to improve the study performance for college students?
• Besides studying, what are other reasons that college students take too much coffee?
• Does drinking coffee have any negative effects on college students?

Preliminary Methodology:

Variables: students’ grades, average hours of sleep, coffee consumption daily

Questions:

• How many servings of coffee would you estimate you drink on a weekly basis?
• What are the main reasons that most influence your purchase of coffee?
• How many average hours do you sleep every day?
• What’s your average grade for college courses?
• What’s are some negative effects on drinking too much coffee for college students?

Hypothesis:

This paper researches the current prevalence of drinking coffee and study performance among college students, contributing factors for sleep deprivation, and the role of coffee in learning and memory. Some benefits of coffee in college are: firstly, increasing brainpower because of the antioxidants in coffee can improve memory; secondly, drinking coffee is able to improve focus, and caffeine keeps them alert for lectures and study time for many students; last but not least, health benefits, students have shown decreases in heart disease as well as type 2 diabetes for coffee-drinkers.

The consequences of drinking coffee are especially problematic to college students and can result in increased health risk and irregular sleep schedules. Some downsides for college students who drink too much coffee: health risks, heavy consumption can reverse some of the benefits and actually lead to heart disease.