Humans have used caffeine throughout history, but it wasn’t until about 200 years ago that a chemist named Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge took a much closer look at the chemical. In nature, we find caffeine in plants, but we can also make it in a lab. A few scientists have studied how some bees get caffeine from the nectar in flowers. It turns out, humans aren’t the only ones that can feel the effects of caffeine. We might feel more nervous, have difficulties breathing, or a faster heart rate. Caffeine may give us a temporary feeling of being awake, but it also has some other side effects. The reason we don’t feel tired when we have caffeine is because caffeine literally blocks the adenosine from reaching our cells and doing the job of making us sleepy. That’s what I found out from my friend John White, a pharmacy professor at Washington State University who knows a lot about how caffeine works in the body. To your neurons, the caffeine molecule looks a lot like the adenosine molecule. But sometimes an imposter molecule comes along. The adenosine is kind of like a key and it can unlock your sleepiness. Part of the reason you feel tired is because the adenosine molecules you made have actually reached parts of your nerve cells called receptors. The chemical helps send a signal to the body when we need sleep, which helps the body recharge. It can slow down activity in the brain and is part of what makes us sleepy. Making moleculesĮach day, your body produces a chemical called adenosine (ah-den-o-seen). We can trace all of these reactions back to our central nervous system where our nerve cells regularly interact with different chemicals, or molecules, in our body to help us think, feel, and sense our world. These kinds of drinks contain caffeine, a chemical and stimulant that can trigger changes in the body.Ĭaffeine can make people feel excited and happy or even a little sick and jittery. To feel more alert, they might drink a cup of coffee, tea, or soda. They might be tired during the day or have a lot of work to do. But sometimes humans don’t get quite as much sleep as they need. To understand exactly why it works, it helps to know about one of my favorite things: sleep. So do right by your mind and body this finals season by following these 15 healthy ways to go about staying up late, and avoid the inevitable crash and burn at the end of the evening.You’re right, caffeine can help us stay awake-but only for so long. (Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?) But you're putting your body through plenty of stress throughout finals week, and you should try to take care of it in some compactly, and not using harmful ways to keep it awake is one of them. I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't stay up till the wee hours to cram before exams. So why rely on sugary, harmful, crash-inducing substances to help you stay awake when there are so many other better alternatives out there? On top of the lack of sleep and the stress caused by all the studying you need to get done, you're going to put yourself in a pretty bad place come finals time if you use super unhealthy stuff to stay up. Sure, Red Bull and other less-than-savory alternatives may get the job done, but you just know they'll end up making you feel like crap by the next morning.

There are plenty of ways to stay awake while studying for finals, but not all of them are exactly that great for you.

Things to help you stay awake