If you have an iPhone or other Apple device, you can now download a Penn State-designed app that will tell you precisely when to drink your coffee for optimal benefit.
Frank Ritter, a professor of information sciences and technology and psychology at the university, explains that the Caffeine Zone app grew out of a question from the federal Office of Naval Research: How does human cognition change under stress? So Ritter and his colleagues looked at how caffeine can make stress more tolerable. He and Laura Cousino Klein, a biobehavioral health professor, came up with a mathematical model showing how caffeine affects people at different periods after they consume it.
The app, which is available in free and ad-free versions, shows users a graph of how much caffeine is expected to be in their bodies over the next 24 hours. Users have to enter how much coffee, tea or caffeine gum they consume and when. They can also plug in the amount of caffeine in other substances, like an energy drink. The graph shows when one can expect to feel most active and when they'll most easily be able to sleep.
Ritter says the research, which began in 2003, showed that caffeine consumption is more scientific than one might think. For one thing, the morning's first cup should be finished quickly for best results.
"If you want to wake up, don't sip your coffee," he says. "Once you get into the zone you want to be in, sip your coffee."
Source: Frank Ritter, Penn State University
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen
