| My freshman year of college I got well-acquainted with | | | | be asleep (because you really should be!). Caffeine is |
| a little something called "coffee." I blame my addicted | | | | notorious for making people thirsty as well. Why is |
| roommate for getting me hooked. However, to begin | | | | this? Caffeine shrinks your blood vessels |
| with for a while, I found that after I drank a cup of | | | | (vasoconstriction). So naturally, your heart rate and |
| coffee, the only thing I could think about was how | | | | blood pressure increase. In addition, caffeine pushes |
| much more I wanted to go to sleep once I had | | | | you to relieve yourself often (diuretic). To make things |
| downed it. After going through countless times where | | | | simple, basically, if you are already dehydrated, the |
| my roommate would laugh at me as I turned in for a | | | | caffeine will not have enough blood volume to shrink |
| midday nap and she was raring to go until four in the | | | | your vessels to increase your blood pressure. And of |
| morning, I realized that perhaps something was a bit | | | | course, the caffeine will only cause you to become |
| strange. After all, why would the beverage known for | | | | more dehydrated, thus making you even more tired. |
| keeping people awake do nothing but put me to | | | | So, having a sense of being dehydrated and a little |
| sleep? | | | | drowsy anyways, caffeine, or, in this case, coffee, can |
| I set off to do some research. Obviously when we talk | | | | really put you out. It is very important to stay hydrated |
| about coffee keeping us awake, we are really talking | | | | when you are also downing even small amounts of |
| about the caffeine in it, which also resides in chocolate | | | | coffee. |
| bars and soft drinks. However, percolated and drip | | | | So, the mystery solved, I now make sure I have been |
| coffee both outdo these other caffeine venues by, in | | | | staying hydrated throughout the day or will be drinking |
| some cases, a few hundred milligrams. And let us not | | | | water in the near future after having had coffee. So |
| even talk about espresso, which truly trumps | | | | do not be alarmed when your roommates are staying |
| percolated and drip. | | | | up into all hours of the night while you take a midday |
| So what does caffeine really do to our bodies? Well, | | | | nap; perhaps all you really need is to rehydrate your |
| caffeine does indeed turn us into insomniacs, but when | | | | body. |
| you drink coffee, you probably also feel like you should | | | | |