If you ever get criticised for being totally unbearable before your first cup of morning coffee, you can now blame it on science.
Yup – a new study has shown that having a caffeinated drink in the morning has some seriously good brain benefits.
Results from the study carried out in Thailand (and published in Physiology and Behaviour) showed that there was a reduction of alpha wave activity following an AM caffeine hit – a type of brain activity that is linked to drowsiness.
Working memory also showed an improvement following consumption of a caffeinated drink. Working memory, in simple terms, is your short-term memory – so don’t expect to walk into a room and immediately forget why you went there if you’ve had your morning cup of joe.
There’s even more good news, as a reduction of alpha waves is linked to an increase of arousal – steady on, we’re talking about brain arousal here.
Researchers behind the new study sought to “explore whether a single low caffeine dose as a morning wake-up drink could affect brain wave activity and cognitive function.”
Their results showed that 30 minutes after ingesting 50mg of caffeine, brain activity indicating drowsiness had decreased and cognitive functioning had improved.
The study only used 25 male participants, so it’s not without its limitations – everyone who took part was provided with the the same dose of caffeine regardless of their weight, meaning each person had a different caffeine concentration in their body.
Either way, we’re going to take the findings and run with them – time to stick the kettle on.