A recent study confirms a long-standing postulate: coffee would help us to hold on better after a short or restless night. More specifically, it would facilitate concentration and help keep us awake.
- Coffee has a beneficial effect on cognitive functions after shortened nights.
- However, these effects are temporary.
Who has never rushed to a cup of coffee after having slept badly? Embodied by the cliché of the student who logs until late in the evening and who runs on caffeine during the day, this drink has long been associated with a powerful antidote to counter the soporific effects of a night too short. But are these claims valid from a scientific point of view?
A search carried out by researchers from the Institute of aerospace medicine in Cologne (Germany) on 26 participants affirms that drinking coffee can produce a positive impact on cognitive faculties. More specifically, thehe study focused on lack of alertness, reaction time, accuracy and memory.
Beneficial effects… but short-lived
I’study simulated sleep restriction (five hours per night) over a five-day work week. Participants were randomly assigned to groups drinking either coffee containing 300 mg of caffeine or decaffeinated. For five days, sleep for all participants was limited to five hours per night. Every day, their cognitive functions were assessed.
Positive effects in volunteers who consumed caffeine were felt as early as the third or fourth day of the week, the researchers note. However, on the fifth and last day, no difference was observed between the two groups. This therefore suggests that the benefits of coffee are real, but temporary.
“Previous research suggests that acute caffeine consumption may reduce the impact of sleep deprivation on attention and cognitive function deficits in a short-term setting. This study is one of the first to examine whether this effect can be translated to a real-life situation, where caffeinated beverages are commonly consumed daily by people with chronic sleep restriction. Our study indicates that moderate coffee consumption may lessen some of the effects of reduced sleep over a few days, but it is not a substitute for a good night’s sleep in the long term.“, says Denise Lange, co-author of the study.
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