Lot's Wife Edition 5 2015

32
SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
BY ALISOUN
TOWNSEND
The Daily Grind
"Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive
drug in the world. Uni students follow this
pattern, with caffeine playing a huge part of
our lives."
09.30
The cat wakes me up by sitting on my head. I can hear
music and my parents moving around so I get up rather
than face suffocation. Staying with my parents over the
holidays means there’s always tea in the teapot and a pot
of coffee can easily be made. I pour myself a cup of tea and
begin to write this article.
I was never a coffee drinker. I drank tea filled with milk
and honey like it was water, but never coffee. Although the
smell was wonderful, I despised the bitter taste. Anyone
who tried to offer me coffee instead of tea would have
been met with glare.
It wasn’t until the summer of 2013 when I spent time
in Sweden with friends that I truly fell in love with coffee.
Maybe it was the warm, lazy days that stretched into each
other with no break, all the fikas we had or the need I felt
to stay awake and experience as much as I could of a
Swedish summer.
When I left Sweden, I was well and truly addicted to coffee.
I had never craved something before. It felt bizarre, like
I could hardly function without a cup of coffee. I went to
stay with a friend in Austria, who introduced me to one of
the great wonders of continental Europe – the 1.20 large
iced Americano from Starbucks. It was cheaper than
water and I lived on it as I travelled. In hindsight, drinking
so much coffee wasn’t good for me, but it made me feel
better when I was hung over and trying to catch a 7am
train.
10.45
I come back to this article with a plunger filled with
coffee and sit it next to me. Black dark roasted coffee is a
weakness for me, maybe because it tastes just like dark
chocolate. Yesterday I’d made a deal with myself to try
and write this article with as much caffeine in my system
as possible. Now it’s staring me in the face, this seems
like a bad idea. The last time I drank heaps of coffee was
when my friend was trying to teach me how to be a barista
(which is harder than it looks and no one is allowed to
mock baristas near me ever again). I could physically feel
my heart beating that day and I had the worst night’s
sleep.
Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive drug in
the world. Uni students follow this pattern, with caffeine
playing a huge part of our lives. Approximately 98% of
students report they have consumed caffeine in the past
and 89% consume caffeine every month. Males are more
likely to consume larger quantities of caffeine in the form
of energy drinks. Caffeine usage also increases with age
and year level.
Caffeine raises alertness and keeps people awake
through boring lectures and into the night when you
realise you’re about to miss that Moodle quiz closing
date. There are even studies to suggest it can reduce the
risk of diabetes, gallstones, Parkinson’s disease and liver
disease.
But the effect of it on our bodies is often undiscussed
amongst the jokes about needing so many cups of coffee
to survive a morning class.
Caffeine can have seriously adverse effects on sleeping
patterns, which are already in jeopardy because of our
varied social lives and uni timetables. The alertness that
is so useful when needed can actually work against us!
That may be why we’re always told to avoid caffeine after
midday... who knew?!
Combining caffeine and anxiousness is generally
conceded to be a bad idea. Caffeine raises your heart
level, can cause jitters and increase anxiousness in
general. It can also create headaches.
The hangover cure I so loved in Europe also doesn’t
work. The placebo effect is at play! Caffeine also won’t
sober people up. Getting a mug of coffee into a drunken
friend won’t help sober them up – it might just make
their hangover worse in the morning, as caffeine can
dehydrate you.
The mixing of caffeine and alcohol can also have
adverse effects on you. There are few studies examining
the effects of mixing caffeine and alcohol, but it is
generally agreed that people are less likely to realise how
drunk they are getting when consuming the two drugs
together. This is due to caffeine delaying the feeling of
drunkenness and sleepiness that comes with drinking
alcohol. Young men are much more likely to consume
energy drinks and alcohol.
13.00
I have to stop drinking coffee. My mother’s worried about
me, I feel incredibly dehydrated and my heart thrumming
in a weird tempo. I might need a detox period after this
amount of caffeine. Or not, because I love to wake up to
a morning cup of tea and adore chatting to my favourite
barista. Perhaps, like all things in life, I need to accept a
nice balance.