How to Make the Most of Caffeine

If you're like me, you require a borderline obscene amount of coffee to function on a daily basis. But how do you get the most out of your caffeine intake?

That's the sort of question I've asked myself as I've stood in line waiting to order my Venti-XL-Massive-Godzilla-Apocalypse-sized cup of coffee on a Monday. Sure, I love coffee. I love everything about it. I love how it looks, how it smells, how it tastes, and how it prevents me from attacking people like the Predator in a fit of grumpiness (I'm not proud of it, but hey, we're being honest here. This is a safe place).

But how do I make sure that the caffeine that is fueling me is giving me the most for my needs?

So, as someone in 2015 is wont to do, I turned to the Internets for my answer. And I came upon this interesting article from Men's Health.

In addition to when you should consume your coffee, it also gets into the science of it:

Your body absorbs about half of the caffeine in your cup in seven minutes, explains Frank Ritter, Ph.D. who developed Caffeine Zone—an app that helps you monitor your body’s caffeine levels. And if you drank 200 milligrams (mg)—about the size of a small premium coffee—you’ll have absorbed 187.5 mg after 28 minutes. You’ll probably remember more from that morning meeting, too. Caffeine activates your sympathetic nervous system and stimulates the release of norepinepherine, a stress hormone that helps raise blood pressure and increase heart rate. The chemical sends a signal to your brain that something important is happening, and prompts your brain to store that information for later, explains Michael Yassa, Ph.D., a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

Then there's this article, which is filled with some more information on how to make yourself productive, aided by coffee. Among the tips:

Drink coffee/tea over an longer period of time, to slowly release the caffeine into your body instead of bombarding your body with too much caffeine at once. If you slowly consume caffeine, your body will also slowly clear it out of your system, and you won’t crash as hard.

Just figured I would pass along my findings to those of us who struggle to find the best ways to remain productive.

Happy caffeinating!