Three cups of coffee deep, two paragraphs in and one Red Bull short of finally understanding just what it means to have wings, the brain is drunk on caffeine and the body is operating accordingly with tremors, aches and dizziness.
It’s midterm week. Brews consumed at Court Street bars are wisely swapped for black coffee to accompany a sleepless two-day cram session.
Emily Kuzmick, a junior studying environmental biology, is no stranger to such late-night escapades. She endures about two sleepless nights of studying per quarter, at best enjoying an hourlong nap with each.
“I don’t think I have a lot of extracurriculars (that delay studying). I think I just put things off,” Kuzmick said. “I do my easy things first, and I leave my studying for my big tests for last.”
But for college students looking to cram, a sleepless night can crumble even the best-laid study plans.
Caffeine
Averaging three to four all-nighters each quarter, Lorisha Frazier, a junior studying communication sciences disorders, combats sleepless nights with a familiar sidekick: caffeine.
Frazier’s current record stands firm at two consecutive all-night study sessions, downing two cups of coffee and one 5-Hour Energy to stay awake.
However, Frazier’s late-night tactics come with a price.
“The 5-Hour Energy just had me feeling crazy,” Frazier said. “I couldn’t even focus because I was jittery.”
Frazier’s jitters are just one of the many side effects caused by excess caffeine consumption.
Other side effects include nervousness, agitation and an increased heart rate, to name a few, said Dan Hudson, a pharmacist at Campus Care.
“I myself avoid caffeine at all costs,” Hudson said. “I don’t drink tea. I don’t drink coffee. I don’t drink soda.”
In small amounts, caffeine can increase alertness and, according to recent studies, can increase mental and physical performance, said Janet Duerr, associate professor in Ohio University’s Department of Biological Sciences.
Caffeine mimics adenosine, a purine nucleoside responsible for regulating energy transfer in the body. As a result, it’s able to attach to adenosine receptors in the brain, Duerr said, taking the place of adenosine and therefore increasing alertness.
“If you’re going to have more than (a few cups of coffee), then it should just be occasional,” Duerr said. “People who drink like eight cups or a big pot, they’ve actually changed the level of the receptors in their brain, and they need to cut down.”
The effects from a single cup of coffee can last up to five hours, Duerr said, adding that caffeinated energy drinks double — sometimes quadruple — the level of caffeine found in coffee.
“The trouble, of course, is overstimulation,” Duerr said. “If you have too much stimulation and it stimulates your nervous system too much, that’s when you get the jitters and the shakes.”
To increase alertness without caffeine’s side effects, Karen Robinson, nursing supervisor at Campus Care, suggested light activity every 15 minutes to increase the heart rate.
“I know if people have a lot of caffeine, they can even have muscle twitching, vomiting and confusion. The heart rate can get so fast that it becomes irregular and might be life-threatening,” Robinson said. “They may also become confused.”
The post-caffeine crash can also create problems for students.
“Any time you’re tired, whether it’s from caffeine withdrawal or just because you’re tired, it can cause less cognitive awareness and problems with memory,” Robinson said. “And then, if you have the headache and nervousness on top of that with the caffeine, that can cause problems with studying also.”
REM Cycle
For Shaunae Tolson, a fifth-year senior studying psychology and biology, a normal night of sleep equals about six full hours — three on a bad night.
Averaging 10 all-nighters per quarter, Tolson said her late-night study tactics ultimately cause her academic performance to suffer rather than prosper.
“I honestly never feel ready (for tests after an all-nighter),” Tolson said. “I just kind of go in with the attitude that what I know is what I know. I’m going to take this test and, hopefully, what I studied is on there.”
And with less than one hour of sleep per all-nighter, Tolson is just falling short of experiencing rapid-eye-movement sleep, or REM sleep, which occurs during the last 10 to 15 minutes of a 90-minute sleep cycle, said Keith Markman, associate professor in OU’s Department of Psychology.
REM sleep is responsible for consolidating and organizing information, Markman said.
“It’s going to put together memories that you studied before you went to sleep,” Markman said. “If you don’t go into REM sleep, your memory isn’t going to be as good.”
A student who pulls an all-nighter is advised to take a 90-minute nap or skip sleep altogether, Markman said, explaining that a nap shorter than 90 minutes can actually cause a student to forget recently stored information.
Students who postpone their bedtime even further into the early morning hours can actually throw off their entire sleep cycle for as long as two weeks, Robinson said.
And consistently ignoring a normal sleep schedule can even mean an increase in jean size for some students.
“If you are persistently not getting sleep — we’re talking about somebody who only gets four to five hours of sleep over and over again — that could lead to weight gain,” said Francie Astrom, a nutrition counselor in the College of Health Sciences and Professions.
Astrom said that, although there is no proof that lack of sleep causes a decreased metabolism, research suggests there is a correlation between the two.
To combat the pudge without giving up late nights, Astrom suggested eating a healthful breakfast and avoiding late-night snacking.
“I would eat a good, well-balanced breakfast,” Astrom said. “If I were going to go take a test or something, I would say scrambled eggs, a piece of whole-wheat toast and a piece of fresh fruit.”
And for those willing to endure the long-term consequences for the sake of extra study time, Markman said he believes college students are at the prime age for jumping back easily from an all-nighter.
“I can’t imagine what benefit there is (from an all-nighter) except that it ends up being something that you have to do,” Markman said. “But if there’s any time in your life when you can stay up for 48 hours, it’s your college days.”
sg409809@ohiou.edu
