Coffee As Substitute for Sleep Not a Healthy Choice

Is coffee being abused in our hectic, sleep-deprived society as a way to become more productive and active than would normally be the case? The question would appear to be a no-brainer. The popularity of coffee and various "energy drinks" would appear to constitute a strong support for the assertion that we rely on caffeine as a means of staying wakeful.

According to the American Observer, if you are one of the many that rely on caffeine to stay awake and productive, you are in pretty good company. Many famous individuals, including Voltaire and novelist and playwright Honore de Balzac, drank copious amounts of coffee in their lifetimes.

But the benefits of coffee as a means of staying awake are known to take a serious toll on an individual's health and mental well-being. According to several Dutch scientists in an article published in a journal entitled the "Sleep Medicine Reviews" the effects of sleep loss could lead to damage in the hippocampal area of the brain leading to the development of mood disorders and the like. Because the hippo campus is associated with memory, staying up all night to study for tomorrow's test may not be such a good idea.

All this is unlikely to change the current caffeine-dependent climate. We tend to reward those who accomplish the most in a given period. The drive to accumulate material wealth has tended to encourage a hyper-active approach to living that is fueled by large amounts of coffee consumption. It is no accident that most of the coffee consumed in the world is done by industrialized nations as opposed to nations of the Third World. There is a direct correlation between productivity at work and coffee drinking.One could even go so far as to say that the existence of the industrialized world in its  present form would not have been possible without coffee-drinking. It may not be a particularly healthy choice, but it remains a popular one.