display

For some, nothing works in the morning without a cup of coffee.

No wonder, after all, it contains around 82.5 milligrams of caffeine.

This stimulates our nervous system and increases the pulse.

We feel more awake.

Because of this stimulating effect, many people do without an espresso in the afternoon - so as not to endanger their sleep.

But if we drink several cups of coffee every day, don't we generally sleep worse?

This is exactly the question that researchers at the University of Basel have asked themselves.

They found out: Those who regularly drink a lot of the caffeinated pick-me-up generally have no worse sleep than non-coffee drinkers.

But before you think that you can safely pour one cup after the other into yourself, read on: Doctors have also discovered that the way you drink coffee can change your brain structures.

The scientists published their results in the specialist magazine “Cerebral Cortex”.

This is where you will find third-party content

In order to interact with or display content from third parties, we need your consent.

Activate external content

I consent to content from third parties being displayed to me.

This allows personal data to be transmitted to third-party providers.

This may require the storage of cookies on your device.

More information can be found here.

Coffee doesn't leave you sleepless at night, but it does shrink the gray matter of your brain.

For the study, the researchers observed 20 young and healthy people who regularly drink coffee.

They took tablets twice a day for 20 days, otherwise the test subjects avoided coffee, cola, tea, energy drinks and the like. In order to be able to compare the results, the men and women initially received a tablet with caffeine, in in the second half, however, an inactive placebo.

Without knowing it, of course.

display

During the experiment, the participants' sleep quality was measured by an EEG in a sleep laboratory.

At the end of the ten days, the researchers determined the volume of the test subjects' gray matter using brain scans.

Researchers assume that the nerve cells in the brain, known as gray matter, are partly responsible for our intelligence.

People with more gray matter in the brain areas responsible for memory, attention, and language often have better results on intelligence tests.

Study director Carolin Reichert, who conducts research in the field of cognitive neuroscience, says in a press release from the University of Basel:

Obviously, everyday caffeine consumption changes our cognitive hardware, which should at least give rise to further studies. 

Dr.

Carolin Reichert, Head of Studies at the University of Basel 

Does coffee weaken our memory?

Source: Unsplash.com/Nathan Dumlao

The difference between caffeine users and those who did not consume it was particularly striking in the right medial temporal lobe of the brain, including the hippocampus.

This is a brain region that is central to our memory consolidation.

Our findings do not necessarily imply that caffeine consumption has negative effects on the brain. 

Dr.

Carolin Reichert, Head of Studies at the University of Basel 

Of course, the number of study participants was very small at 20 people, so the study should be treated with a little caution.

In addition, after only ten days of abstinence from caffeine, the gray matter in the brain of the study participants had completely regenerated.

So there doesn't seem to be a permanent change.

In further studies, the short-term and long-term effects of caffeine on brain structures are to be investigated further.