Revising for psychology is a bit like trying to drink from a firehose: there's so much to get in and only a limited amount of time and mental willpower with which to gulp it all down. To keep your mouth open for longer and let you swallow faster it's no wonder so many people take to nootropics, the lovely technical term for drugs what make your noggin work better.
The majority of you will use nootropics during revision and exams. 'Not me, I'm clean', you're thinking. Well, yes you, if you gulp your nootropic down from a nice paper cup or can. Coffee, tea, Red Bull, Relentless (who have a great new site) - some people must drink their own body weight in this stuff if the bins in the library are to be believed (and I think they should be. I mean what kind of crazy scamp would go around just filling bins with empty cups and cans? Mind you, those library porters look pretty unhinged...)
Anyway. Adenosine. That's where we start. Adenosine looks a bit like a man holding balloons. Maybe. The important thing is that it has a dulling effect on the nervous system and it builds up in the brain over the day. The beauty of caffeine is that it's got it in for adenosine, to that point that it blocks its production (in neuroparlance it's an adenosine antagonist; Fisone, Borgkvist and Usiello, [2004]). This is what keeps you sharp.
Instead of glugging from a jug of coffee at the start of the day, a better strategy is to have small, frequent doses (Wyatt et al, 2004). One big hit and the adenosine will get back up again; with repeated, small smacks to the face it will stay down. So, in effect, it keeps sleep just around the corner; however, it doesn't knock it off the map. Use caffeine to ward off drowsiness but don't let it substitute any of your normal sleep (Wyatt et al, 2004)
So that's staying alert done. Does this drug have any other effects? Well it speeds up various mental process, including things like faster digit vigilance reaction time and improved visual information processing accuracy (Haskell et al, 2008).
Lesk and Womble (2004) also found that if you are focused on one thing caffeine may pump up short-term memory (by increasing short-term plasticity within the phonological retrieval system). This has also got support from Koppelstaetter et al (2008). (Although the long-term memory situation isn't so hot for caffeine; Han et al., [2007].)
So caffeine does have ergogenic - work improving - qualities and you are probably better off having it to keep you zippy during your revision and let you drink more from that firehose. Just space it out and don't let encroach on your sleep.
I would add a caveat though: if you are an anxious person you may want to give it a miss. This is because the antagonizing of adenosine is anxiogenic - anxiety causing - which you wont need if you are already in this state (e.g. Childs et al, 2008).
Anyway. Adenosine. That's where we start. Adenosine looks a bit like a man holding balloons. Maybe. The important thing is that it has a dulling effect on the nervous system and it builds up in the brain over the day. The beauty of caffeine is that it's got it in for adenosine, to that point that it blocks its production (in neuroparlance it's an adenosine antagonist; Fisone, Borgkvist and Usiello, [2004]). This is what keeps you sharp.
Instead of glugging from a jug of coffee at the start of the day, a better strategy is to have small, frequent doses (Wyatt et al, 2004). One big hit and the adenosine will get back up again; with repeated, small smacks to the face it will stay down. So, in effect, it keeps sleep just around the corner; however, it doesn't knock it off the map. Use caffeine to ward off drowsiness but don't let it substitute any of your normal sleep (Wyatt et al, 2004)
So that's staying alert done. Does this drug have any other effects? Well it speeds up various mental process, including things like faster digit vigilance reaction time and improved visual information processing accuracy (Haskell et al, 2008).
Lesk and Womble (2004) also found that if you are focused on one thing caffeine may pump up short-term memory (by increasing short-term plasticity within the phonological retrieval system). This has also got support from Koppelstaetter et al (2008). (Although the long-term memory situation isn't so hot for caffeine; Han et al., [2007].)
So caffeine does have ergogenic - work improving - qualities and you are probably better off having it to keep you zippy during your revision and let you drink more from that firehose. Just space it out and don't let encroach on your sleep.
I would add a caveat though: if you are an anxious person you may want to give it a miss. This is because the antagonizing of adenosine is anxiogenic - anxiety causing - which you wont need if you are already in this state (e.g. Childs et al, 2008).
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