A new American study has shown that consuming coffee helps with simple tasks only when experiencing prolonged sleep deprivation. Study author Kimberly Finn, a cognitive neuroscientist at Michigan State University, stated, "Caffeine is likely to improve your mood and alertness and may help you perform simple tasks, but it won’t help you with more complex tasks."
She added, "Caffeine simply cannot replace a night of sleep, and it is crucial for individuals to prioritize sleep. If they have to endure a sleepless night, they should take necessary precautions and avoid driving or performing any tasks that involve significant risks."
To gain a better understanding of caffeine's effects in the context of sleep deprivation, researchers asked more than 275 participants to complete a simple attention task along with a more challenging one.
Some participants stayed awake all night in the lab, while others went home to sleep. The next day, all participants consumed a capsule containing 200 milligrams of caffeine and were asked to complete both tasks again, the simple and the complex.
The results showed that caffeine helped participants successfully accomplish the easier task, while a significant portion could not complete the more complex task. The study's results were published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, as reported by the UPI website.
