Alternate energy: KHS student’s experience with caffeine

Morrigan Carey, features writer| November 4, 2022

Cassie Sprang

Most students rely on caffeine to wake them up each morning, especially with Pioneer Perks open every before class.

School starts before most full time jobs usually do. First period at KHS begins at 7:45 a.m., even when researchers from Oxford University say it should be at least two hours later. Most students rely on caffeine to wake them up each morning, especially with Pioneer Perks open every before class. It helps to overcome fatigue and get through the first few hours of the school day, but some students at KHS have their own reasons why they do or don’t drink coffee.

Carter Munroe, junior, said the caffeine is purely incidental. He drinks coffee for the taste, preferring it without sugar, or occasionally a soda with caffeine. 

“I typically only drink coffee once every two weeks or so,” Munroe said.  “When I get up in the morning, I’m a little groggy but I’m usually all ready for the morning without it.”

Caffeine is a drug, and can have secondary effects besides just an extra kick in the morning, especially for students with disorders ADHD or ASD. Rob Bournstein, junior, stays away from caffeine because of their ADHD.

“When I drink enough [caffeine], it has the exact opposite effect as it has on other people and I get really tired,” Bournstein said. ” I just wake up earlier in the morning instead, because it just takes me a while to get moving.”

According to the National Library of Medicine, ADHD is typically treated with amphetamines. Like caffeine, this medication is a stimulant, providing extra energy and jumpstarting the brain. Unlike caffeine, amphetamines help regulate dopamine, which improves focus. Having one without the other could be compared to having a car without a steering wheel. It can go fast, but cannot be used for anything productive.

The stereotype of someone who drinks too much caffeine is excited, jittery, and anxious. Eddie Fenlon, junior, finds it to be the opposite, using caffeinated soda to keep their anxiety in check. 

“I usually can’t handle being in most environments,” Fenlon says. “But drinking soda usually helps me alleviate it a bit.”