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Are there any reliable researches defending the regular consumption of coffee at work?

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It's not immediately obvious to me how this question is related to personal productivity. I doubt people would be coming to this site to find out whether they should start drinking coffee. – Adam Wuerl♦ Jul 6 '11 at 19:04
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@Adam It's a beverage present in likely every office. Something believed to increase productivity by some and believed to increase stress levels by others. It's relevant to check if any of the aforementioned claims are reliable or based on pure assumptions. – Renan Jul 6 '11 at 19:21
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Closed as "not constructive" because it seeks research on value judgments rather than specific conclusions or observable phenomena. The question could, of course, be re-opened if you rewrote it to better fit the Q&A format. To find the "right" approach to getting the info you need through our format, try to avoid generalities and get to the heart of the matter. Are you interested in documented effects on wakefulness, attentiveness, or some other measurable quality? What action do you want to take based on the info you get? – HedgeMage Jul 7 '11 at 4:52
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Perhaps we should migrate this topic to skeptics.stackexchange.com – tehnyit Jul 7 '11 at 7:44
@Hedge I was not sure about the best approach for this question. I'll have that in mind next time. – Renan Jul 7 '11 at 11:59

closed as not constructive by Adam Wuerl♦, Tom Wijsman, HedgeMage Jul 7 '11 at 4:42

As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or specific expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, see the FAQ for guidance.

3 Answers

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From skeptics.se:

"Caffeine is a stimulant which makes you feel less tired and, for athletes, delays exhaustion. So if the alternative is being asleep, caffeine cetainly helps.

The other issue is that the regular use of caffeine leads, as with other psychoactive substances, to dependency (tolerance or addiction are other words used). In such cases, lack of caffeine leads to withdrawal symptoms such as drowsiness and irratability. For dependent individuals, a cup of coffee will remove these symptoms in the short term, aiding concentration, though it is less clear whether this is an improvement on never having taken caffeine."

There are links on that page.

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up vote 0 down vote

There seem to be a lot of scientific literature around this question. Here is one article that seem to answer your question:

A. Smith: Effects of caffeine on human behavior

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691502000960

I also saw this article more about redbull but also comparing with coffee: C. Alford, H. Cox and R. Wescott: The effects of Red Bull Energy Drink on human performance and mood http://www.springerlink.com/content/xxdbgvjy9ke72wbl/

Good luck!

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Both documents are for sale. Did you read them? – Renan Jul 6 '11 at 19:28
The first one from science direct is free since it is an Elsevier production. However, from springer it might be difficult to found it without paying. If you had been to university, you might be able to grab it from here. I have read the first one rapidly and I think it answer perfectly your question. Caffein increase alertness, some time it also increase anxiety. It slightly increase performance of the brain but not the sensory functions. You really should read it, it also give a lot of others ressources to read. – Zonata Jul 9 '11 at 18:06
So to answer your question, after some reading, many studies has demonstrated that regular coffee consumers show better performance at work. Caffeine seem to stop the decrease of performance as time past at work. However, that is only true for moderate consumption of caffeine. – Zonata Jul 10 '11 at 21:39
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This article seems to suggest that there is a relationship with caffeine similar to a dependency, wherein after some time, the caffeine no longer makes you more stimulated, but rather brings you up to "normal". Or, put another way, it lowers your baseline, so that the stimulated state with caffeine of a dependent individual is only as good as the non-stimulated state of a non-dependent one.

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