Instead of sleeping or finding more peaceful ways to relieve stress, many students have turned to caffeine for coping.
For many high school students, a full eight hour rest is rare when school starts at 7:25 am. After school, many students have hours of homework, clubs, jobs, sports, and chores to do, making their hours for sleeping very slim.Add in eating, showering or time to relax, and many students do not go to bed until midnight. This means that some high school students only have 5-6 hours of sleep before they have to get up to get ready for school.
This lack of sleep then leads students to rely on energy drinks to replace sleep. According to the National Institutes of Health, anxiety, jitteriness, insomnia, and fatigue are only some of the effects that caffeine has on high school students, making it nearly impossible for them to concentrate during class.
A study done by Mayo clinic showed that 83% of teens drink caffeine daily, leading lots of teens to have caffeine addictions.
Teenagers are only recommended a max of 100 milligrams of caffeine, while one celsius contains 200 milligrams of caffeine.To paint a picture, one can of Celsius is equivalent to two cups of coffee, or nearly six cans of coke.
Some more serious effects caffeine has on students are withdrawal syndromes, sleep disorders, increased heart rate, digestive problems, stunting the brain, bone loss, and more. Due to the abuse of caffeine by students, many seem to be less focused, more tired, and overall not happy. Beverages like coffee, Monsters, Bubblrs, Celsius, and more seem to be more popular than water in school.
“I do have a cup of coffee each morning,” Piper Moede, Junior, said when asked about caffeine consumption.
The main reason behind why caffeine addictions are so prevalent in high school is because of the caffeine making students ‘feel’ more awake during the early school hours. In reality, what actually seems to happen is that students become more anxious, stressed, and even more tired than before.
In conclusion, the reason why so many students have caffeine addictions is because of the early hours that they have to wake up for school.
