Small doses of caffeine help to stay awake

Small and frequent doses of caffeine are best for truck drivers, doctors and others who need to stay awake over a long period of time. Regular doses of caffeine build up to counteract the body's natural desire for sleep and they build up more as one stays awake. Most people use caffeine the wrong way by drinking a few mugs of coffee or tea in the morning, or three cups on the way to work. This means that caffeine levels in the brain will fall as the day goes on. Unfortunately, the physiological process they need to counteract is not a major player until the latter half of the day. That process is the system that builds up the appetite for sleep. Caffeine is thought to block the receptor for adenosine, a critical chemical messenger involved in the body's drive for sleep. Researchers from the Sleep Disorder Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago studied men in private suites who had no way of knowing what time it was for 29 days. The men were scheduled to stay awake nearly 29 hours straight, simulating the amount of time some doctors, military and emergency services personnel have to be up. Those who were given a caffeine pill every hour equivalent to the caffeine in two ounces of coffee did better on tests than those who received an inert placebo. The subjects who took the caffeine pill also felt sleepier than the others when bedtime finally arrived. While there is no perfect substitute for sleep, the results point towards a much better method for using caffeine in order to maintain optimal vigilance and attention, particularly when someone has to remain awake longer than the traditional 16-hour wake episode.