Study reveals trends in kids’ caffeine consumption

Researchers analyzed data from more than 32,000 cases of caffeine energy product exposure among children and adolescents between 2011 to 2023. The rate of exposure increased 17% during this period.

Children under 6 years old accounted for the majority of cases (69.6%), with a 20% rise in exposures over the study period. This suggests caffeine energy products remain both accessible and appealing to young kids. Most exposures in this age group were accidental.

Among teenagers, most exposures were intentional, often categorized as “misuse.” Teens may seek these products for an energy boost or as part of risky behavior.

While most cases didn’t require medical care, nearly 15% resulted in treatment at a health care facility and almost 2% led to hospital admission. Common symptoms included agitation, vomiting, rapid heart rate, nausea and even seizures. Solid formulations — like caffeine pills or chewables — were more likely to result in serious medical outcomes than liquids.

How caffeine disrupts sleep

Caffeine is a stimulant that blocks adenosine, a brain chemical promoting sleepiness. This interference makes it harder to fall and stay asleep. For children and teens, whose brains and bodies are still developing, lost sleep can have significant consequences.

Did you know:

• Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to structural changes in the brain. A 2022 study found that pre-teens sleeping less than nine hours daily had more mental health and behavioral challenges, such as impulsivity, stress, anxiety and aggressive behavior, compared to those who got sufficient sleep. Additionally, brain imaging showed harmful changes in areas of the brain responsible for attention, memory, and inhibition control in children getting less than nine hours of sleep daily. These changes in brain structure persisted over two years — a finding that suggests long term harm for those who don’t get enough sleep.
• Sleep-deprived teens are at a higher risk of developing depressive and suicidal thoughts. A study published in 2023 found that high school students who regularly get inadequate sleep (less than eight hours) on school nights were significantly more likely to experience poor mental health and negative feelings, including sadness, hopelessness and suicide planning.
• Insufficient sleep can lead to risky behavior and poor judgment. Research found that teens who get less than eight hours of sleep on school nights were more likely to engage in risky behaviors like substance use, sexual activity or reckless driving. One study found that students who got the least amount of sleep on school nights reported greater alcohol usage than those students who got the most sleep.

Lack of sleep doesn’t just lead to tiredness — it can weaken emotional control, impair judgment and make it harder for kids and teens to focus, learn and make healthy decisions.

How much sleep do kids and teens need?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine provides recommendations for optimal sleep durations by age:

• Infants (4-12 months): 12-16 hours (including naps)
• Children (1-2 years): 11-14 hours (including naps)
• Children (3-5 years): 10-13 hours (including naps)
• Children (6-12 years): 9-12 hours
• Teens (13-18 years): 8-10 hours

Getting enough sleep supports memory, mood, and helps the body repair itself and regulate important hormones. To help families find the right bedtime, AASM offers a bedtime calculator.

The bottom line

Caffeine energy products pose real risks to children and teens, not only through immediate health effects but also by interfering with critical sleep needs.

Parents and caregivers should keep energy drinks out of reach, check labels for hidden caffeine sources and discuss the dangers with their children — especially teenagers. Encouraging healthy sleep habits and caffeine-free ways to boost energy, such as staying hydrated and getting natural sunlight, can make a big difference.

Protecting children’s sleep isn’t just about preventing tiredness — it’s about supporting their physical and mental health, emotional resilience and long-term success.

If your child is experiencing ongoing sleep problems, visit the AASM sleep center directory to get help from the sleep team at an accredited sleep center.

Medical review by Margaret Hovda, MD

Related:

• Navigating caffeine’s effects on sleep and alertness
• Sleep and caffeine
• Studies link caffeine to bad sleep habits and poor school performance in young teens
• Sleep disorders in children
• The truth about melatonin use in kids

Authored by: Kate Robards

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Caffeine, a natural substance derived from plants or produced synthetically, operates as a stimulant by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain, thereby diminishing feelings of sleepiness. It can help improve your concentration, alertness and energy. However, daily use of caffeine can make it less effective as a stimulant. Over time, the brain builds up a tolerance, necessitating higher doses for the same desired outcome. Consequently, habitual caffeine consumption can disrupt sleep patterns, even if consumed earlier in the day. This makes it challenging to get quality sleep.

Despite its widespread use, the caffeine content in products can vary significantly. It can be challenging to gauge consumption accurately. For instance, coffee generally contains more caffeine than tea, and different brands of the same product may have differing amounts. Caffeine and alcohol can be a dangerous and life-threatening combination. Additionally, avoid pure and highly concentrated caffeine. It is extremely potent and nearly impossible to measure accurately in the home, making the risk of an accidental, lethal overdose of caffeine powder high.

Beyond the immediate effects on alertness, excessive caffeine intake can lead to adverse reactions such as high blood pressure, heart palpitations, dehydration and dizziness. Also, withdrawal symptoms may occur when you stop taking caffeine after using it regularly for a long time. This includes headaches, depressed mood, drowsiness and irritability. For pregnant or nursing women, people with high blood pressure or those with heart conditions, careful monitoring and restriction of caffeine intake are advisable. Also, parents should limit the amount of caffeine children consume.

Interestingly, limited and properly timed caffeine intake may be useful in the management of specific circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders. For example, caffeine can enhance alertness during the night shift for people with shift work disorder. Caffeine also may improve alertness and help reduce sleepiness in people who have jet lag. This improvement may occur following eastward travel across multiple time zones.

It’s important to strike a balance between reaping the benefits of caffeine and ensuring you get enough quality sleep. Aim for 7 or more hours of sleep nightly for adults, and 8 to 10 hours for teens, to optimize alertness and cognitive function. Maintaining a consistent sleep-wake schedule reinforces the body’s natural circadian rhythms, promoting deeper and more restorative sleep.

While caffeine can offer temporary relief from drowsiness, it’s not a substitute for sleep. Reserve its use for moments when an extra boost of alertness is genuinely needed and avoid consumption in the late afternoon or evening to prevent difficulty falling asleep.

If you’re experiencing ongoing sleep or alertness, talk to your doctor, who may refer you to an accredited sleep center for help.

Medical review by Dionne Morgan, MBBS, FCCP

Related:

• Sleep and caffeine
• Caffeine fails to help you power through the work week
• Pure caffeine powder can be deadly
• Late afternoon and early evening caffeine can disrupt sleep
• Studies link caffeine to bad sleep habits and poor school performance in young teens

The post Navigating caffeine’s effects on sleep and alertness appeared first on Sleep Education.

1. Alcohol

It’s no secret that alcohol makes you feel drowsy after a few drinks. While you might think alcohol helps you sleep, there are negative effects after having a drink at night. The most obvious effect is that alcohol increases the need to urinate in the night, easily disrupting your sleep pattern. Alcohol use also can fragment your sleep and decrease your rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Heavy drinking can cause symptoms of insomnia. It can also worsen the severity of breathing problems during sleep. These problems include snoring and sleep apnea.

2. Coffee

The caffeine in coffee can help wake you up in the morning. However, drinking coffee later in the day can have a negative effect on your sleep. It can even delay your body clock. One study found that consuming caffeine six hours before bedtime reduced total sleep time by one hour. Another study found that there is a wide range of caffeine content in specialty coffees. Even decaf coffee contains caffeine!

3. Energy Drinks

For obvious reasons, there is no use in having an energy drink before bed. The amount of caffeine in these drinks can make it hard for you to fall asleep, reducing your total sleep time. Energy drinks can contain two to three times more caffeine than soda or coffee.

4. Soda

Drinking soda (or “pop,” as our friends in the Midwest like to call it) before bed is like a double whammy for your sleep. Sodas are loaded with caffeine and lots of sugar. The caffeine can make it hard to fall asleep, and the sugar may affect your ability to stay asleep. One study found that people who have a high daily intake of sugar have more arousals from sleep during the night.

5. Water

Most surprisingly, you should not drink water close to your bedtime. In healthy young adults, your urine output is lower at night than during the day. This helps prevent you from waking up during the night to use the bathroom. Drinking too much water in the evening may disrupt this balance. You should drink plenty of water during the day to prevent dehydration. Then drink less water in the evening to avoid trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Reviewed by Dr. Lawrence Epstein

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Participants in the study were restricted to 5 hours of sleep per night for 5 nights. Each day they were given 200 mg of caffeine at 8 a.m. and again at noon. While awake they completed hourly cognitive tests.

Results show that caffeine improved performance only for the first two days of the simulated work week.

During the last 3 days of sleep restriction, alertness and performance declined. Those in the coffee group also rated themselves to be “more annoyed” than those in the placebo group over the final days of the study.

The research was conducted by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Results were presented in June at the SLEEP 2016 annual meeting in Denver.

This study is a reminder that caffeine is no substitute for a good night’s sleep! The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that adults should sleep 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health.

Learn more about the study, “Caffeine Efficacy Across a Simulated 5-day Work Week with Sleep Restriction,” in the SLEEP 2016 abstract supplement. 

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Some retailers sell pure caffeine powder in bulk. It is marketed as a dietary supplement. Parents need to be aware that many teens and young adults take it for an energy boost. Others consume caffeine powder in an attempt to enhance performance or lose weight.

Caffeine powder is highly potent, and a safe serving size is extremely small. It is nearly impossible to measure caffeine powder accurately in the home. As a result the risk of an accidental, lethal overdose is high.

“A small overdose of caffeine powder can be deadly,” said AASM President Dr. Timothy Morgenthaler.

The AASM health advisory supports a recent FDA warning about powdered pure caffeine. The FDA notes that the potency of a single teaspoon of pure caffeine is about the same as 25 cups of coffee.

Symptoms of caffeine overdose can include a rapid heartbeat and seizures. Tragically, a small overdose of pure caffeine powder can result in death.

Caffeine is a stimulant that can provide a short-term alertness boost. It can be helpful following a period of sleep restriction or sleep loss. But caffeine also can disturb your sleep if taken in the afternoon or evening. The AASM advises using caffeine in moderation.

“No stimulant is a substitute for healthy sleep,” said Morgenthaler.

Sleep is an all-natural performance enhancer that gives you an energy boost. It also improves your health and mood. Best of all – it’s free, and no prescription is required. You can’t find it online, but you can get it at home.

Try some sleep tonight!

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The study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine involved 12 healthy normal sleepers. Researchers at Henry Ford Hospital and Wayne State University in Detroit looked at the effects of a given dose of caffeine taken at different times before sleep.

Results show that 400 mg of caffeine (about 2-3 cups of coffee) taken at bedtime, three and even six hours prior to bedtime significantly disrupts sleep. Even when caffeine was consumed six hours before going to bed, objectively measured total sleep time was dramatically reduced by more than one hour. However, subjective reports suggest that participants were unaware of this sleep disturbance.

“Drinking a big cup of coffee on the way home from work can lead to negative effects on sleep just as if someone were to consume caffeine closer to bedtime,” said lead author Christopher Drake, PhD.  He is an investigator at the Henry Ford Sleep Disorders and Research Center and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Wayne State University in Detroit. “People tend to be less likely to detect the disruptive effects of caffeine on sleep when taken in the afternoon,” noted Drake.  He also is on the board of directors of the Sleep Research Society.

According to the authors, this is the first study to investigate the effects of a given dose of caffeine taken at different times before sleep.  The results suggest that caffeine generally should be avoided after 5 p.m. in order to allow healthy sleep.

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Caffeine is a type of drug that promotes alertness. These drugs are called “stimulants.” Caffeine acts as an “adenosine receptor antagonist.” Adenosine is a substance in your body that promotes sleepiness. Caffeine blocks the adenosine receptor to keep you from feeling sleepy.

Caffeine begins to affect your body very quickly. It reaches a peak level in your blood within 30 to 60 minutes. It has a half-life of 3 to 5 hours. The half-life is the time it takes for your body to eliminate half of the drug. The remaining caffeine can stay in your body for a long time.

Coffee accounts for 54% of the caffeine consumption in the world. Tea accounts for another 43%. On any given day, about 85% of Americans use caffeine products. The average daily consumption of caffeine by adults in the U.S. is about 300 mg per person. This is about three times higher than the world average. But it is still only half of the caffeine consumption in heavy tea-drinking countries such as England and Sweden.

Caffeine is a product that has both positive and negative effects. These effects depend on the amount of caffeine you consume and when you consume it:

Positive Effects of Caffeine

Caffeine is considered a moderately effective alerting agent. It can have a positive effect on your reaction times, mood and mental performance. A normal dose of caffeine is about 50 mg to 200 mg.

Caffeine works best when you take it on an intermittent, off-and-on basis. Higher doses can have much more potent effects. A dose of 500 mg or 600 mg of caffeine can affect you much like a low dose of an amphetamine. When you consume caffeine daily, it is less effective as a stimulant. Your body builds up a tolerance to it.

Negative Effects of Caffeine

Caffeine can have a disruptive effect on your sleep. The most obvious effect of the stimulant is that it can make it hard for you to fall asleep. One study also found that caffeine can delay the timing of your body clock. These effects will reduce your total sleep time. Caffeine also can reduce the amount of deep sleep that you enjoy.

The effects of caffeine can occur even when you consume it earlier in the afternoon or evening. One study found that consuming caffeine 6 hours before bedtime reduced total sleep time by 1 hour. These effects also can be stronger in older adults. It takes their bodies a longer time to process caffeine. Regularly consuming high doses of caffeine may cause complications during pregnancy.

At high doses, caffeine can produce these common side effects:

• Diarrhea
• Sweating
• Nausea
• Increased heart rate
• Increased breathing rate
• Muscle tremors

Withdrawal symptoms can occur when you stop taking caffeine after using it regularly for a long time. These symptoms include:

• Headaches
• Sleepiness
• Low energy levels
• Bad moods

The FDA is collecting reports of adverse events that have occurred in people who took products marketed as “energy drinks” or “energy shots.” The FDA cautions consumers that products marketed as “energy shots” or “energy drinks” are not alternatives to sleep.

Some retailers sell pure caffeine powder in bulk. It is marketed as a dietary supplement. Parents need to be aware that many teens and young adults take it for an energy boost. Others consume caffeine powder in an attempt to enhance performance or lose weight.

Caffeine powder is highly potent, and a safe serving size is extremely small. It is nearly impossible to measure caffeine powder accurately in the home. As a result the risk of an accidental, lethal overdose is high.

Caffeine Summary

Caffeine has both positive and negative attributes. It can be very effective for improving your concentration, alertness and energy. But these effects can be brief if you consume high doses of caffeine on a daily basis. Caffeine also can have a negative effect on your sleep. It can reduce the quantity and quality of your sleep. These effects can occur even when you are unaware of them.

Caffeine Recommendations

Like most substances, you should use caffeine in moderation. These are some general guidelines for you to follow:

• You should limit your caffeine consumption to no more than about 300 mg to 400 mg per day. This equals about three to four cups (8-oz) of coffee.
• Women who are pregnant or nursing should consume even less caffeine or avoid it altogether.
• Parents should limit the amount of caffeine that their children consume.
• People with high blood pressure or other heart problems should avoid high levels of caffeine.
• It is best if you avoid caffeine in the late afternoon and in the evening.
• The FDA and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine advise consumers to avoid powdered pure caffeine.

Caffeine Levels

Caffeine levels vary widely from one product to another. In particular, the caffeine content of coffee can be very unpredictable.

Scientists at the University of Florida bought a 16-oz cup of the same type of coffee from one coffee shop for six straight days. They analyzed each cup of coffee to determine how much caffeine it contained. They found a wide range of caffeine levels in the six cups of coffee. The lowest level was 259 mg of caffeine and the highest was 564 mg.

Coffee’s caffeine content depends on many factors. These include the type of bean that is used and how the coffee is prepared. In the same way, the size of a tea bag, number of tea leaves and brewing time can affect the caffeine level of a cup of tea.

Caffeine is added to many soft drinks. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration classifies caffeine as a substance that is “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS. This means that caffeine is not regulated by the FDA as a food additive. It must appear as an added ingredient on a drink’s label. But the label does not need to show the amount of caffeine in the drink.

The following table will help you compare the caffeine levels found in a number of common products:

Note: Caffeine levels are estimates based on both the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference and information provided by manufacturers.

Updated Jan. 29, 2018

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The study involved a group of over 1,200 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan and found that 45 percent of them consumed one or more energy drinks per day. Service members who drank three or more energy drinks per day were more likely to report less than 4 hours of sleep on average per night (38.2 percent) than service members who drank one to two (18.4 percent) energy drinks per day or those who did not drink any (23.9 percent).

The authors of the study, published in the Nov. 9 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, caution that their findings did not prove that energy drinks caused the sleep problems. They suggested that service members should be educated that the long-term health effects of energy drink use are unknown, that consuming high doses of energy drinks might affect mission performance and sleep and that, if used, energy drinks should be consumed in moderation.

“This study suggests that high levels of energy drink consumption might indirectly impair performance in a military setting,” they wrote. “This is similar to results found in a civilian study in which caffeine use caused an increase in nocturnal worry and sleeplessness.”

If you have to rely on energy drinks to make it through the day, you might have a sleep illness. You can get treatment from a board-certified sleep medicine physician at an AASM Accredited Sleep Center near you.

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A recent study of 51 seventh-grade students shows that students who consume caffeine wake up later in the morning on school days. The study links waking up later for school with having a lower grade-point average (GPA). Students who consume caffeine later in the day also are more likely to miss school.

The study also shows that young teens who use caffeine go to bed an hour later on weekends. Another finding is that consuming caffeine on the weekend has a negative effect on daytime mood and alertness.

The students in the study group completed a seven-day sleep diary. Academic records were obtained from school transcripts.

The findings were presented in June at the SLEEP 2007 21st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

A 2003 study also examined the link between caffeine and sleep in young teens. It involved 191 students between the ages of 12 and 15.

Results show that students who consume more caffeine sleep for a shorter length of time at night. They spend more time awake after initially falling asleep. They also sleep more during the day.

Students in the study group consumed an average of 52.7 mg of caffeine per day. About seven percent of students consumed 150 mg per day or more. One 13-year old, eighth-grade student had an average caffeine intake of almost 380 mg per day. The highest one-day total of caffeine consumption by a student was 800 mg.

Sodas were the source of about 70 percent of the caffeine consumed by the students. A little less than 15 percent of the caffeine intake came from coffee.

The students were in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades. They completed daily surveys for an average of 21.5 days. The study was published in the journal Pediatrics.

Parents should be aware that caffeine levels vary widely from one product to another. Mellow Yellow, Mountain Dew and Pepsi One contain higher levels of caffeine than other sodas. Each has more than 50 mg of caffeine in a 12-ounce serving. An energy drink such as Jolt or No Fear contains more than 140 mg of caffeine in a serving size of 16 or 24 ounces. A cup of coffee from a specialty shop may contain 250 mg to 500 mg of caffeine or more.

Sodas with no caffeine include 7-Up, Sprite and Caffeine-Free Coke and Pepsi.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine warns that consuming caffeine during the day can make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep at night. Therefore caffeine should be avoided in the late afternoon and evening. Because the caffeine content of sodas and coffees varies widely, parents should be involved in helping their teens choose drinks with little or no caffeine.

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