Got a habit of sipping on coffee after the sun goes down? You may want to think again, as researchers from the University of Texas at El Paso are pointing out a rather jolting side effect: increased impulsivity. A recent UTEP study found that drinking coffee at night doesn't just keep you awake; it could lead to more reckless behavior.
The study, which focuses on fruit flies, shows these tiny creatures are more than just pests at your picnic. They're barometers for human behaviors, given that their genetic and neural makeup has surprising parallels to ours, according to UTEP researcher Kyung-An Han, Ph.D. "Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world, with about 85% of adults in the U.S. using it regularly," said Paul Sabandal, Ph.D., a research assistant professor involved in the study, as obtained by UTEP Newsfeed. Despite its prevalence, few have studied its effects outside the daylight hours until now.
So, what exactly did the UTEP biologists do? They introduced varying doses of caffeine to the diet of Drosophila melanogaster and watched them under different conditions, including nighttime consumption and sleep deprivation. The goal was straightforward: assess the flies' ability to suppress movement in response to something unpleasant, like a strong gust of wind. Normally, the flies stop moving, but when buzzed on caffeine at the wrong time, they kept on trucking, or flying, in this case. "We found that flies consuming caffeine at night were less able to suppress movement, displaying impulsive behaviors such as reckless flying despite these aversive conditions," Erick Saldes, Ph.D., noted, as per UTEP Newsfeed.
The discovery is striking, and notably, the flies' gender played a role. "Despite having comparable levels of caffeine in the body, females exhibited significantly greater caffeine-induced impulsivity than males," Han revealed, as noted by UTEP Newsfeed. This could be particularly concerning for those who work late shifts or in high-pressure environments like hospitals or the military, where decision-making is critical, and coffee is often a go-to pick-me-up.
