My coffee theory

Coffee or tea? I am a coffee lover but I think I am slowly accepting tea as well. I think I had my first actual cup of coffee when the first Starbucks ever in my home state opened nearby where I live. Actual cup meaning I actually finished the cup of coffee. Past cups that didn’t counted for me was because I was young and I just took a sachet of those instant coffees and mixed with too much water. The after 1 sip of the awfully bitter taste, I never drank the thing ever again. Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t start drinking coffee because of the fame franchise being a stone’s throw away from my home. I always thought that coffee can keep one awake when they need to. For my case, it was exam week, I was on some last minute revising and I had to sacrifise my afternoon nap for studying.

I attended morning schools back in secondary school, so it meant having to wake it early in the morning and by noon, I would have felt god damn tired already. Furthermore, thanks to the “exciting” task of sitting at the desk and staring at a thick block of paper with black and white printing on it, which contents don’t make any sense at all, it was extremely hard to keep awake. Anyway, back to the coffee! I thought that drinking coffee could keep me awake. But it didn’t, I fell asleep at the desk anyway….hehehe….-v- years later I figure it must have been the full lunch I had before my revising session that made me ‘inevitably’ sleepy. (it was rice and carbs do make you sleepy!)

Then, came college and again, the old habit of doing work at the eleventh hour kicked in. I was seriously tired from classes and not having enough sleep, so I thought I drink some coffee. Well, I fell asleep next to the desk again. Is coffee that useless to keep us awake? Or am I strongly resistant to coffee? To disprove the latter, I actually felt more awake when I drank coffee after waking up in the morning or when i couldnt keep my eyes open anymore from stodgy classes.

After much trial and error, I have discovered that coffee only works when you are sleepy. For example, when you had a good night’s rest but when you wake up, you still feel like half asleep. Coffee will give you the jolt you need to be fully awake for the day! Whereas if you are tired, coffee will not work on you, in fact, it makes you even more sleepy, I think! When your body is already at the point of almost shutting down, no amount of coffee will restore back your energy. In Chinese belief, there are certain foods that are ‘hot’(brings heat to the body, ex: spices, lamb, red beans) and ‘cold’(cools the body, ex: mint, mung beans), coffee is ‘hot’ which tires your body even more, thus it makes you even more sleepy.

So, that is my theory! Don’t bother drinking coffee when you are too tired to work. Maybe get a short rest or if you have to, drink energy drinks (I never drink energy drinks before, I don’t know if it’ll be as useless as coffee). If you are just sleepy coz you still don’t feel like waking up, or your class is too boring for you to bear, then have a cup of brew!