When It Comes to Studying, Science Proves Tea Is Better Than Coffee.
It’s pretty much a lifeline for college students, especially around finals. But what if you switched up your normal cup of joe for tea? Instead of coffee to keep you powering through the night, science suggests you drink tea as an alternative to stay on your “A Game.”A typical 8 oz. cup of brewed coffee contains up to 200 mg of caffeine depending on your roast, which is more than one-third of the suggested amount of daily caffeine. Similarly, speciality drinks such as lattes and mochas can contain up to 175 mg. During finals week, students drink up 2-3 cups a night, if not more.
As a central nervous system stimulant, the high levels of caffeine might give you that burst of energy to get you started on that 200-word Spanish vocab list, but eventually the high caffeine dosage will have an opposite effect known as a “crash” in which your energy and mood decline as the caffeine leaves your system.
Because of the high dosage of caffeine in coffee, side effects like the jitters can actually set you back. Especially with the added anxiety of finals, your jitters and headaches can become more severe. Even worse, as finals week progresses, students often consume such high amounts of caffeine that the day they decide to skip their coffee run, the withdrawal symptoms will kick in with potential headaches, irritability and anxiety.
Despite that coffee and espresso beverages have been substantially more popular for most college students (because, YUM) tea has a beneficial effect on your body that can help you to stay awake and focused longer during those difficult nights.
Just like coffee roasts, different kinds of tea have different levels of caffeine content. Green tea contains about one-third of the caffeine as coffee at 70 mg, while black tea (which is in chai tea) contains up to 90 mg. A good black tea to go with is a traditional English Breakfast tea or an Earl Grey, both available at Starbucks. Because the caffeine content in tea is not so extreme to shock your system into high gear, you feel the impact of the caffeine more steadily.
The key to the superpower of tea is the three additional stimulants that supplement the caffeine gap between tea and coffee: Theophylline, Theobromine, and L-Theanine. Each act in their own way to stimulate a milder buzz to keep you focused and alert more steadily throughout the night, instead of the boost and crash of coffee.
The side effects of tea serve as the ultimate boost to your study habits. Tea is used for improving mental alertness, information processing, and memory, all crucial for getting that “A”. As an added bonus, it can also help treat those finals week stress headaches.
An analogy I read on authoritynutrition.com sums up the difference between coffee and tea perfectly: “The effect provided by tea is like being gently encouraged to do something by Mother Theresa, while coffee is like being kicked in the butt by a military officer.”
If you’re looking for a new secret weapon to keep you on track during finals, let tea be your key. From my own experience, I can tell you it makes all the difference.
Tea is better than coffee.