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Our biological clock makes us noticably slower after lunchtime. Professor Jan Snel is an expert within the consequences of coffee and claims that two cups of coffee is enough to avoid that effect.
By around four a.m. the human body is spinning on low while around 11 a.m. it is at its' peak. But right after lunch the decent starts.
- Two cups of regular coffee, or about 200 miligrams of caffeine, will reduce alot of the slowness we experience right after lunch, says professor Jan Snel at the University of Amsterdam.
The professor is administrating a large staff of reseachers at the University of Amsterdam. Here the researchers are examining the reactions of persons subjected to caffeinated coffee against persons that are given coffee without caffeine whom are not told what type of coffee they are drinking. The research is focused on the effects of a dosage of 200 miligrams of caffeine, which is equivelant to the "normal" coffee intake for the average person a day.
- After 45 minutes we run diverse testing in order to document all the effects of coffee drinking. It is shown, over and over again, that the subjects that got the coffee containing caffeine could, amongst other things, work up a problem and receive information a lot quicker and keep focus a lot longer, Snel says.
The body's clock
Chief physician Olav Skatvedt at Omnia Sleeping Clinic in Oslo agrees that coffee after lunch is good to compensate for the weariness that occurs.
- It is no doubt that coffee is a waker upper that can reduce the effects of our body clock that sets our daily rythm. The human body is dividing the day into four different stages. We are at our lowest late at night and at our highest at 10-11 a.m. A milder low and high are occuring around 3 p.m. respectively 7-8 p.m., says Skatvedt.
This expert of sleep informs us that sleeping issues are a big problem in the western world, not just in Norway.
- Over half of the population are getting not enough sleep. We go to bed too late and get up too early which is not enough to meet the needs of our bodies, he says, and underlines that the morning coffee most of us drink is helping us to start up in the morning.
Bracing scent
Professor Jan Snel informs us that caffeine pills cannot replace coffee.
- To drink coffee is not the same as taking caffeine. We have also done experiments that show that even just the smell of coffee is evoking some of the effects the caffeine is, tells the dutch professor.
He means that the scent of freshly made coffee has a bracing psychological effect due to the expectations we have for the beverage. He emphasises this to show that we use coffee not only to wake up, but to relax.
Our research shows that people become calmer when situations occur along with the coffee's awakening effects, this works the psychological effects stronger than the caffeine, Jan Snel concludes.
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