College students will sometimes drink coffee or take No-Doz to cram for tests or to write essays. To counteract the jittery effects these drugs bring, some may smoke cigarettes to soothe their frazzled nerves. Caffeine will keep you awake but make you jittery and scatter-brained. In the end, you won't be able to focus. About half of all Americans drink 3.3 cups of coffee on any given day.
Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, cola nuts, mate and guarana.
It increases alertness and creates a feeling of mild euphoria. Jasmine Stuart drinks a mocha at Sacred Grounds. According to the Web site, caffeine increases heart rate, respiration, metabolic rate and the production of stomach acid and urine. Caffeine also decreases reaction time to visual and auditory stimuli. Cynthia Kuhn, Scott Swartzwelde and Wilkie Wilson of the Duke University Medical Center said caffeine can cause irregular heartbeats in some individuals.