Whether it’s in the form of coffee, tea, or energy drinks, caffeine has been used as a study aid for years.

“It’s because students procrastinate,” said Layla Cameron, a fourth-year journalism student. Energy drinks can always be found around Carleton’s library, Cameron said.

“School never ends. It’s a 24-hour commitment, so students have this notion that they have to be working around the clock, and the only way to do that is to do it in an unnatural way because your body naturally needs sleep and the thing that’s at hand is energy drinks,” she said.

Cameron said she had a “scary” energy drink experience. After drinking one shortly before bed, she woke up an hour later with severe chest pains that lasted 10 minutes.

“I felt like I couldn’t breathe, like I was paralyzed,” she said.

“With the way energy drinks are marketed, you would never think that there is anything wrong with drinking one.”

The recommendations of a Health Canada expert panel on energy drinks have recently been released.

Key recommendations include stricter enforcement of the ban on advertizing directed at teenagers, and increased education on energy drinks for the public. Another recommendation is that energy drinks be treated as regular drugs, which would mean being sold only in drugstores.  

“At present, there are no restrictions on where these stimulant drug containing beverages can be sold even though the dosing of caffeine in a stimulant drug containing drink is at a higher dosage than found in a caffeine tablet classified and regulated as a drug,” the report stated.

At this point, it’s unclear how Health Canada will act on the panel’s recommendations.

“Basically, the department is reviewing the report right now,” said Stephane Shank, a spokesperson for Health Canada. The announcement will not be made until the review is complete, Shank added.

According to the Canadian Beverage Association, the panel’s recommendations are “completely unsubstantiated in science and their conclusions are unreasonable.”

“The panel is just one element that the government is looking at,” said Stephanie Baxter, director of communications for the Canadian Beverage Association.

She said the association stands behind its members, which include Red Bull, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola.

The association is waiting on Health Canada’s official announcement on the findings of the expert panel, according to Baxter.

In the meantime, energy drinks can still be found all over campus, mainly because they’re used as a study aid for students.

“Sales in general have increased because we have a larger student body on campus,” said Kartikay Singh, a manager at Abstentions, a convenience store in Carleton’s Residence Commons building.

“There are peak periods [for sales] around frosh week and exam times.”

Caffeinated drinks interfere with students’ sleep cycles — but whether or not this increases productivity depends on how they’re used.

“You have to ask ‘what does sleep do?’ ” said Dr. Judith Leech, respirologist and co-director of the West Ottawa Sleep Centre. “It’s for memory, focus, recall, and organization.”

“If you want the best essay, you need the best brain,” she said. Sleep deprivation will cause brain performance to deteriorate, according to Leech.

She said she’s suspicious of the benefits of energy drinks.

“Medically [. . .] I think it’s a dumb idea,” Leech said. “Higher and higher concentrations [of caffeine] will make you feel revved but will also make you crash.”

Students should be careful of when they take their stimulant, as taking it too close to the time they sleep can interfere with proper rest.
Even the people who can fall asleep after taking caffeine are affected, Leech said.

“If you compare their sleep with [taking caffeine before sleeping] to sleep without caffeine, it is much more broken up with sudden arousals.”
People have varying levels of sensitivity to caffeine, and the effects wear off faster for some people than others, Leech said.

“With some people it’s four to six hours, and with others it’s six or seven.”

It’s not all black and white, she added.

“One quick dose [of caffeine] probably helps.”