A vast majority of college students stay up late. Whether they stay up because they have a late job, because they have to study, or because they party, the fact still stands. Many college students rely on coffee to give them that boost of energy to wake them up, whether in the morning for classes or in the evening for enjoying their time with friends.

Caffeine is a chemical stimulant most commonly found in coffee, tea, soft drinks, energy drinks, and chocolate and is most commonly used to improve mental alertness. It stimulates the central nervous system in addition to the heart, muscles, and blood pressure.

It takes some time for the body to digest caffeine. The chemical first gets absorbed in the stomach and small intestine and, from there, is disbursed throughout the entire body, including the brain. The amount circulating in the blood peaks within one hour’s time, but the chemical still metabolizes within the liver for eight to ten hours after consumption.

Caffeine has several positive effects. It can be combined with painkillers to treat simple headaches. In addition, caffeine can be used to help treat asthma, gallbladder disease, ADHD, low blood pressure, weight loss, and type two diabetes. Furthermore, it can sometimes increase endurance and delay exhaustion, prevent dizziness, prevent Parkinson’s, improve airway function, prevent gallstones, and assist with weight loss.

On the other hand, caffeine can have harmful effects as well. Drinking large amounts of caffeine can cause insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, stomach irritation, nausea, and vomiting. In addition, it can cause increased heart rate and respiration, headaches, anxiety, agitation, chest pain, and ringing in the ears. It can exacerbate symptoms of bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders. It can cause irregular heartbeat in sensitive people. It can worsen, or make more complicated, one’s bowel movements. Also, caffeine increase pressure within the human eyes, so people with glaucoma should be cautious of their caffeine intake.

The FDA itself describes caffeine this way, “Caffeine’s main effect on your body is to make you feel more awake and alert for a while, but it can also cause problems. It can: make you jittery and shaky, make it hard to fall asleep, stay asleep, or get a good night’s sleep, make your heart beat faster, cause an uneven heart rhythm, raise your blood pressure, cause headaches, nervousness, and/or dizziness, make you dehydrated (dried out) especially after a workout, and make you dependent on it so you need to take more of it.”

Just because coffee can have positive health effects does not mean it is recommended. As the old saying goes, everything is good in moderation.