Maria Arozamena, Illustrations Editor

Do you find yourself reaching for one, two, or, hopefully not, three cups of coffee with every meal? Is your trash can filled with empty Celsius and Red Bull cans during finals season?

Caffeine, a stimulating compound found in coffee, tea and energy drinks, is a staple of many college students’ diets. But a series of incidents, including the death of a University of Pennsylvania student after drinking Panera’s Charged Lemonade, bring up concern that students need to be more conscious of their caffeine consumption habits.

“If you notice you get jitters or heart palpitations, you probably need to think about how much caffeinated beverages you drink,” William Perucki, an electrophysiologist at Consulting Cardiologists, said.

Perucki specializes in heart rhythms, diagnosing patients with abnormal patterns and treating them with medication or procedures.

He says caffeine works by mimicking adenosine, a molecule that accumulates and tells you when you’re drowsy, and blocking its receptors. Caffeine also increases epinephrine, or adrenaline, the neurotransmitter responsible for the “fight-or-flight” response, providing that characteristic energy boost and increased heart rate. 

Similarly to drugs like amphetamines and cocaine, caffeine raises dopamine, your brain’s reward signal. Unsurprisingly, caffeine holds the title for the world’s most consumed psychoactive drug.

“[Caffeine] makes you feel awake and energetic and can help with cognitive — memory, reaction time, etc — ability, too,” Dustin Scheinost, an assistant professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at the Yale Child Study Center, told the News.

Scheinost analyzes neuroimaging data on the brain to study mental health and study substance-use disorders.

According to Schienost, caffeine works well in the short term, but then it wears off, and its effects also fade. But “like most things in life, there’s no free lunch,” he added. After caffeine’s effects wear off, coffee drinkers feel very tired and sleepy.

The Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, recommends a maximum daily caffeine intake of 400 milligrams for adults. 

This may seem like a lot, but an average 8 ounce cup of coffee already contains 100 milligrams. And, just like the ever-growing soda servings, Americans’ coffee cups have been inflating, according to Perucki. Currently, a small cup is typically 12 ounces, a medium, 16 ounces and a large, 20 ounces. 

“Nowadays, a medium ‘cup’ is actually two cups, and people tend to forget that,” Perucki said. “We also forget that when we drink caffeinated beverages, they’re loaded with lots of sweeteners, artificial flavors, and heavy in calories. We need to be mindful of what other things we’re putting into our bodies along with high levels of caffeine.”

The FDA’s limit is just a recommendation for the average person — size, height, metabolism and other conditions affect how each person reacts to caffeine. 

Some of Perucki’s patients drink four to five cups with little effect, while others can’t handle a sip. Everyone, he told the News, needs to “gauge their own limit.”

Regardless, while showing up to class caffeinated is a must for some students, others say they’re in it for the routine. 

“I drink coffee not so much for the ‘wake-up’ effects, but because it helps me ‘lock in’ for work and class,” Tabs Collier ’27, who walks into her American Sign Language class most mornings with a vanilla iced latte, told the News. 

On days when she doesn’t get her coffee, Collier said she feels fine, but she still “enjoy[s] the routine of getting one each morning.”

It’s this routine that people seem to have the most difficulty departing from.

Nearly four years ago, Scheinost decided to forgo his daily coffee and opt for a decaf alternative.

He maintained that the “whole thing of sitting down with a cup of coffee in the morning” was not a habit he could break from. 

“Even if it’s decaffeinated, that kind of aspect of it becomes part of the ritual,” Scheinost said. “So, yes, even though I was able to give up caffeine per se, [my] morning coffee was still very much part of that ritual.”

He added that caffeine, which is harmful in excess, is often also used in over-the-counter headache relief medications. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor and works by limiting blood flow to swollen brain vessels responsible for causing pain.

The main takeaway is that “moderate amounts of caffeine intake is okay. Anything in excess is not okay,” Scheinost said.

As for alternative study tactics, Perucki suggested a healthier approach to exam season — one that doesn’t involve energy drink-fueled all-nighters, but preparing for tests ahead of time, healthy diet and “practic[ing] mindfulness.”

One ounce shot of espresso contains 64 milligrams of caffeine.