ARE YOU IN A MOOD BECAUSE OF YOUR COFFEE?

We’ve all been there, rushing to catch the early train or getting stuck in the car park that the motorway has ground into during the morning rush. You may think that your mood could just because you’re running late and you’re frustrated by things outside of your control, but could it be more? Could it have something to do with that coffee you skipped in your rush to get out the house in the morning and on your way to work?

It is also not just your sluggishness that could be affected, because scientists have now carried out research that seems to indicate that missing out on that shot of coffee first thing could also have a detrimental effect on your memory too.

The research carried out by the University of Tasmania in Australia found that caffeine cravings can be as intense as those of cocaine withdrawal, which uses up valuable brain space.

The scientists concluded that the effort the brain makes to repress the urges for caffeine leaves us with less ‘brain room’ for taking in and processing fresh information. The study involved 55 coffee drinkers found that those who were denied coffee for half a day scored significantly lower than those who had had a coffee in a test involving 100 pairs of words. Such was the disparity between the two groups that those denied coffee scored 50 percent lower.

Previous research has shown that heavy coffee drinkers pay exaggerated attention to the drink in a similar way drug users do to heroin or cocaine.