Caffeine and College Students: What Happens in Your Body?

 

By: Skye Taylor

As final exams creep among us, many college students turn to coffee and energy drinks to power through sleepless nights, but scientists say the caffeine fueling those study sessions can also disrupt sleep, increase anxiety and create dependence.

Caffeine is one of the most widely consumed stimulants in the world and has become deeply normalized in college culture.

Many students see caffeine as an everyday need to cope with demanding academic schedules.

Laura Juliano, professor and chair of psychology at American University, helps explain the science behind caffeine. 

“Caffeine is a stimulant that affects the central nervous system by binding to specific brain receptors,” said Juliano, “It increases alertness, reduces fatigue, and can improve focus, but it also can disrupt sleep and cause jitteriness, anxiety and dependence.”

The compound works primarily by blocking adenosine, a brain chemical that promotes sleep and relaxation.

When adenosine receptors are blocked, the brain becomes more alert and less aware of fatigue. This effect can help students feel energized, especially during long study sessions.

However, the body can adapt to regular caffeine use over time.

Juliano said frequent caffeine consumption can lead to dependence as the brain adjusts to the stimulant.

“Over time, the brain adapts to regular use, so people need more caffeine to feel the same effects or feel poorly without it,” Juliano said.

Because many students are still developing lifestyle habits during college, they may be particularly vulnerable to forming long-term caffeine dependence.

“College is a time when people are forming new habits, and the brain is still very impressionable,” Juliano said. “Caffeine use often becomes tied to routines like studying, socializing and coping with stress and poor sleep. Over time, those patterns can become hard to break.”

The popularity of these drinks has been fueled in part by aggressive marketing toward young adults.

“Energy drinks are heavily marketed to young adults and often contain high caffeine levels plus added stimulants,” Juliano said. “Unlike soft drinks, which have regulatory limits on caffeine, energy drinks are less restricted. That makes it easier to consume large amounts quickly.”

Local coffee shops also see an increase in student caffeine consumption during demanding academic periods.

Nora Schroeder, a barista at Starbucks in Statesboro, said they experience a spike in student orders during midterms and finals.

“Students come in throughout the day, but during finals week it’s like never ending,” Schroeder said. “Some people will even order multiple drinks or choose stronger beverages like cold brew or espresso drinks.”

Schroeder said specialty drinks and energy-style beverages have become increasingly popular among college-aged customers.

“Many students look for drinks that have an extra boost,” Schroeder said. “Cold brew, espresso-based drinks and refreshers with caffeine are really popular choices.”

For some students, caffeine has become part of a daily routine tied to academic productivity.

Natalie Charton, a Georgia Southern nursing student, said caffeine helps her stay focused while balancing coursework and deadlines.

“I usually drink two coffees a day, and sometimes I’ll add a Celsius or an Alani if I really need to,” Charton said. “It helps me stay motivated and gives me that boost when I’m studying late or trying to finish something before a deadline.”

Caffeine can temporarily increase alertness, but experts warn that too much reliance on stimulants might lead to negative health effects.

Juliano said caffeine withdrawal can occur when someone who regularly consumes caffeine suddenly stops.

“Withdrawal symptoms can vary from mild to severe depending on how much caffeine a person typically consumes,” Juliano said. “Common symptoms include headaches, fatigue, sleepiness, irritability, difficulty concentrating and sometimes even flu-like symptoms.”

These symptoms can appear quickly.

“Withdrawal can start within a day of stopping caffeine and may last for a week or more,” Juliano said.

Caffeine addiction could include difficulty reducing intake, experiencing withdrawal symptoms or continuing to consume caffeine despite negative physical or mental effects.

“People often rely on caffeine for focus, reducing sleepiness and feeling more energetic,” Juliano said. “Once the body becomes physically dependent, the discomfort of withdrawal can make it difficult to quit.”

Experts say the biggest risk for students may be when caffeine begins replacing adequate sleep.

“Pay attention to sleep,” Juliano said. “If caffeine is replacing sleep, it’s likely doing more harm than good.”

Caffeine may also worsen anxiety symptoms for some individuals.

“It can increase anxiety or make anxiety symptoms worse,” Juliano said. “Students should also remember that caffeine is a drug and it can interact with medications or other substances.”

Despite these risks, normal caffeine intake can still be safe for most healthy adults.

Health experts generally recommend limiting caffeine intake to around 400 milligrams per day, which is about the amount found in four small cups of coffee.

Understanding caffeine’s effects may help students make better decisions during high-stress academic times. 

Balancing caffeine intake with sleep, hydration and healthy study habits can reduce health risks.

For many students, no matter the risks, caffeine will remain a familiar friend during finals week.

How Georgia Southern Athletics Uses Data, Technology, and AI to Improve Fan Experience and Attendance

 By: Michael Laba

Georgia Southern Athletics is implementing data analytics, fan feedback, and digital marketing tools to shape how it promotes games and improves the fan experience, according to Dan Adams, Associate Athletic Director. Adams and his team uses postgame surveys, ticketing data, and targeted messaging systems to adjust operations and improve attendance across multiple sports. 

Much of this strategy begins with football, the university’s highest attended sport, where fan data is collected after games and analyzed to identify issues in real time. 

“It starts with football being our biggest sporting event here at Georgia Southern,” Adams said. “We started doing postgame surveys to solicit fan feedback, and that’s probably where things really started to hone in on how to improve the fan experience.” 

The surveys have become a crucial factor in decision making. Instead of relying on assumptions, staff now use direct fan feedback to identify problems and adjust game day operations. 

One example happened during the first home football game of the 2024 against Boise State, when the athletic department hosted a top 25 team in the country and the gameday staff quickly found out how unprepared they were. The heat paired with the unexpected demand causes staff to quickly become overwhelmed.

“We were overwhelmed with the amount of fans in our premium areas,” Adams said. “It was also an early afternoon game in August, so it was super hot. The execution did not go according to plan.” 

The situation escalated as staff struggled to keep up with demand. Some employees reportedly left due to the intensity of the workload, forcing athletic department personnel to step in and help manage service areas.

After the game, post-event survey data confirmed what staff had experienced in real time, long wait times, shortages of food and beverages, and an overall decline in service quality. The department used that information to quickly hit a reset on their gameplan.

“We took that and made sure that would be a one time slip up.” Adams said. “We added more staff and made sure we had more inventory so we could satisfy fan needs.”

The adjustments worked. According to Adams, service issues improved significantly for the remainder of the season after operational changes were made based on survey feedback.

Fans say those improvements are noticeable and influence whether they return to games.

“If the lines are too long or things are disorganized, it definitely makes me think twice about coming back,” said Sully Offer, a Georgia Southern student. “But when everything runs smoothly, it makes the whole experience a lot better and more worth it.”

Beyond gameday operations, Georgia Southern Athletics also uses digital marketing systems to target fans more precisely. These tools allow staff to segment audiences based on demographics, purchasing behavior, and engagement history.

“We have a marketing automation platform that allows us to segment fans and reach different types of fans based on age, gender, or whether they’ve visited our website recently,” Adams said.

The system is used to guide decisions such as season ticket promotions, upgrade campaigns, and single game tickets. The system is so advanced it can see which fans have attend multiple games and they will receive different messaging than those who only attend once or browse ticket pages online.

This data driven approach is also used to boost student attendance, which can vary by sport. Football games tend to draw consistent student turnout, while other sports often rely more heavily on promotions and giveaways.

“We’re actively promoting to students through campus outreach, flyers, social media, and text messaging,” Adams said. “Football stays strong as long as we stay active with marketing.”

For baseball players, those attendance changes can directly impact performance and atmosphere.

“It’s a completely different energy when there’s a bigger crowd,” said Max Prozny, a Georgia Southern baseball player. “We as a team are able to play better when we are able to feed off the crowd.”

For basketball and other sports, freebies play a massive role in driving attendance. Limited edition giveaways, themed merchandise, and promotional events have been shown to create spikes in student turnout.

“We had students out the door wanting to get beanie hats and retro items,”Adams said. “Giveaways definitely work for some of our sports when we’re trying to boost attendance.”

Artificial intelligence is also beginning to influence how marketing strategies are developed, though not through fully automated systems. Instead, staff use AI tools to assist with brainstorming strategies.

“We can use tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to help us think through strategies,” Adams said. “For example, how to target single-game buyers and turn them into season ticket holders.”

Staff then apply those ideas in their systems, seeing trends in specific fan groups based on purchase history and engagement levels.

“We can break it down even further,” Adams said. “We can look at people who only came to one game versus those who came to five or more and tailor messaging differently for each group.”

As college athletics continues to evolve, data and technology are becoming central to how programs operate. At Georgia Southern, that shift is already reshaping how games are promoted, how fans are targeted, and how in-game experiences are improved.

Dan Adams said the goal is ultimately to use data not just to increase attendance, but to ensure fans have a better overall experience once they arrive.

Why Do Some People Pass Out When They See Blood? Vasovagal Syncope Is Most Likely The Culprit.

 

By: Kennon Paulk

Jayden Gallmon remembers the first time it happened like it was yesterday. He was 5 years old watching a movie with his family when a gory scene popped up on the screen.

    He felt a cold sweat rush through his body as he left to go to the bathroom and later awoke to his brother who found him passed out on the bathroom floor.

    Gallmon’s family immediately wanted answers as to what caused this reaction.

    “Initially we were thinking it was some type of heart condition, because my family struggles with heart conditions,” Gallmon said.

    However, while no tests could point to the cause of this reaction, it wasn’t until Gallmon’s mother posted his symptoms on Facebook and someone mentioned the possible condition, vasovagal syncope.

    Gallmon and his family brought this to the doctor and they confirmed that was the condition he had.

    Gallmon, who is now an adult in his twenties, hasn’t had a reaction in years, however he isn’t alone in living with this condition.

    Vasovagal syncope is in general a brief loss of consciousness according to Candace Makant, a registered nurse for 14 years, who works at the Georgia Southern nursing department via email.

“Typically, this is caused by a lack of blood flow to the brain for various reasons,” Makant said via email.

Makant looks at this condition as something relatively harmless and this seems to be the general consensus across the field of medicine as well.

    Emergency Room Dr. Dennis Holder has seen a lot of vasovagal syncope cases throughout his 20 years in the field.  Dr. Holder explained that it's not even the patients he sees that have this condition, it's the family members who take the patient in to get helped.

“Your brain lives on two things, oxygen and sugar,” Dr. Holder said. “If you’re choked and you don’t get oxygen, you pass out and if your blood sugar drops, you pass out.”

There can be many triggers for this loss of consciousness when it comes to vasovagal syncope, the sight of blood or needles, high anxiety and even just the thought of pain can cause this reaction.

These triggers are also more sensitive when the temperature is high. This is the result of a process called vasodilation.

Vasodilation is when your body widens the blood vessels to help cool off your body by promoting easier circulation, at the cost of lowering your blood pressure, which can lead to an easier path to syncope according to Dr. Holder.

While the triggers may be a bit different depending on who you talk to, the root problem that causes this reaction is the same.

“It’s an overactive vagus nerve,” Dr. Holder said. “They don’t really understand why but, what it does is cause the heart rate to slow down so you’re not perfusing the brain.” 

Makant added via email that the most common vasovagal syncope episodes she has seen is when people strain to void, which is the muscular effort needed to start urination, and holding your breath. These examples also dictate a squeezing of the body, causing the heart to strain and slow down. 

Even so, with this being the understood cause of the reaction, doctors still don’t really know why some people have this. 

Dr. Holder likened vasovagal syncope to being similar to irrational fears. He explained that he is afraid of heights and when he is on a tall building even he experiences similar symptoms to vasovagal syncope. 

While there isn’t necessarily a cure for this condition, people like Gallmon have found ways to prevent the symptoms of syncope and avoid passing out. 

“I found this out from being at the dentist, they were pulling my teeth and I started to feel the symptoms,” Gallmon said. “So, they tilted my chair to where my head was tilted downwards and that was the first time I felt like I was going to pass out and didn’t.” 

Gallmon then explained that since that, he could be found a time or two hanging upside down off the couch while watching movies at his house.

Another way of preventing these reactions is little by little exposure therapy, according to Dr. Holder. 

“It’s almost like allergy shots,” Dr. Holder said. “You take a little small bit of antigen and you slowly increase it so your body kind of get used to it.”

Dr. Holder also recommended the use of caffeine as it causes the heart rate to increase and that could minimize some of the overall symptoms of syncope.

Luckily, this kind of condition is normally found early on in life according to Dr. Holder. Which can give those with the condition a lot of time to better understand their personal triggers and better prepare for those reactions.

“You can kind of protect yourself and try to minimize injury,” Dr. Holder said. “If you know it's going to happen then try to make it where it doesn’t happen as often.”

Vasovagal syncope is one of those things that people like Gallmon just kind of have to live with ultimately. However, it’s not something that derails a person’s life either. It just means you won’t be catching Gallmon enjoying a gory horror film any time soon.