Soft Drinks Make You Sleepy
The New York Times examines a health claim: Do soft drinks give you energy? It seems that the research says otherwise:
In one recent study, published in the journal Human Psychopharmacology, a group of healthy adults took 90-minute mental tests after eating a small lunch on various days.
On some days, about an hour after lunch, they drank a soft drink that had 42 grams of sugar and about 30 to 40 milligrams of caffeine. On other days, they drank a similarly flavored drink with no sugar or caffeine.
With the high-sugar drink, the subjects’ test scores were lower and they had more delays in reaction time and lapses in attention. After a 15-minute rush of energy, they became tired and less alert.
So – 15 minutes of energy – then it’s time for a nap.
To get the benefits of increased attention and memory – you need to have at least twice the amount of caffeine.
UPDATE: The study abstract can be found here (Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, Volume 21, Issue 5 , Pages 299 – 303).
9 Comments
Of course, by that I meant *caffeinated* diet sodas. 
Do you have a reference to this article anywhere?
Reference and link added above. Took a while to find the exact study.
Thank you!
That’s why you just have to stay on a steady stream of Dew, then when you are ready to sleep for those couple of hours, you just try not to drink any.
“So – 15 minutes of energy – then it’s time for a nap”
I just sorta Lol’ed at that for a while…
Anyway, I ussuly keep the flow going with lot’s of caffine source’s (Lately i can’t keep myself down to one drink or candy..) then when i want to sleep i just let myself crash. (Just realized i said basically the same thing as DewKnight..And this topic is a tad old..)
I tend to ride the dailycoaster with Mt. Dew. I know the effects may not hit immediately (unless ya slam one!) but, if done right, you can get the brain neurons wondering “Just what z-hells goin’ on!?!” Coffee’s an especially nice fill in during the colder winter months. But then again, nothin’s quite like NyQuil. (jj – kids please do NOT drink NyQuil)
It makes a lot of sense because that’s what i feel now after taking a glass of sprite …ho – hummm … zzzzz
Wow. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. It’s disappointing, though, that they didn’t test diet sodas, which presumably would behave differently.