Unwashed mugs with matcha residue still in the bottom sit on my desk; empty energy drink cans begin to fill the garbage can; my laptop keys clack throughout the night. My twin-sized dorm bed lies forgotten in the corner, untouched.
This scene describes an all-too-common experience for college students. Assignments pile up, tests loom on the horizon and work demands our attention. Before we know it, sleep begins to fall to the wayside. It somehow doesn’t seem as important as grades, performance and success. When did rest become unimportant in academic circles? As sleep loses precedence, a recurring solution rises to take its place: caffeine.
In a world obsessed with results, we often are willing to do what it takes to succeed, even if it means becoming dependent on a “harmless” stimulant. It is, after all, a drug, even if we don’t always think about it as one. According to an article from the National Library of Medicine, “Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive drug in the world.” They go on to state that coffee is the second most consumed liquid in the world, with water still remaining at number one. In 2015, the American Psychological Association found that 80% of American adults consume caffeine every day.
In that same article, it states, “As a psychostimulant, it shows all the pharmacological properties of classical psychostimulants, such as cocaine and amphetamine.” But while they affirm that caffeine is milder than other drugs, it is still addictive. In 2013, they published another article titled “Caffeine Use Disorder: A Comprehensive Review and Research Agenda,” which says, “Although consumption of low to moderate doses of caffeine is generally safe, an increasing number of clinical studies are showing that some caffeine users become dependent on the drug and are unable to reduce consumption despite knowledge of recurrent health problems associated with continued use.” Somewhere along the way, this addictive drug became socially accepted, and caffeine culture morphed into a prominent part of our day-to-day lives.
Caffeine culture has become so commonplace on college campuses that we don’t even think about it anymore. “Caffeine culture on campus is not healthy,” an article for the Kenyon Collegian, asserts that in college, “our enthusiasm around caffeine raises serious concerns about our fixation on productivity even at the expense of healthy living and mindfulness.”
The caffeine craze has gotten out of hand. We take for granted that this drug will always be close at hand, so we don’t even set aside time in our busy lives to consider a life without it. It is too convenient to give up, and we have convinced ourselves that we can’t get anything done without it.
I take caffeine daily myself; I start off virtually every morning with a cup of matcha. But I, too, have fallen prey to the trap of letting it become a replacement for healthy habits. It became so unmanageable that I recently had to be reminded that I was created by God, while homework was not. How is it that our priorities can shift so subtly without us even noticing?
My habits have not and will not change overnight; ironically, I drank a V8 energy drink just before writing this to help me focus and stay awake. However, this article is not a call to put aside caffeine altogether, but rather a reminder to be aware of your habits and to not let them control you. Instead of trying to cut out caffeine completely, I am instead focusing on changing the thought patterns that led me to this point. Confront the root of the problem, and you will begin to see results.
College will not last, but the physiological effects of our lifestyle habits during these years will; the consequences are inescapable. It all comes down to how much you are willing to pay for an insistent caffeine culture that promises more than it can deliver.
