Once again it is finals time! Before heading home for the break or down south for some much needed sun, many people face an entire grueling week of turning in papers and taking exams. For some, the tasks are too much to handle. They turn to caffeine pills such as NoDoz and VIVARIN to help them pull all nighters.
Dr. Roger Miller, assistant director at the Wilce Health Center, said he believes many students take caffeine pills to help them stay up late and study. He said one dose of VIVARIN or NoDoz is equivalent to about two cups of coffee.
Jessica Benner, a sophomore in the nursing program, said she has taken VIVARIN in the past to help her stay awake while studying for finals. “I took it once freshman year to pull an all nighter and I will never do it again,” she said. “It made me shaky and nauseous. I had also drank two Cherry Cokes not thinking about the amount of caffeine I was putting into my body.”
Miller said caffeine pills are no different chemically than coffee but can be harmful to people who are on medication, have high blood pressure or heart problems. The caffeine in the pills speed up the heart rate and the metabolism keeping the user more awake and alert. They do not help with concentration regardless of what some might believe. Though Miller said he would not recommend the use of caffeine pills for a study-aid, he said average people who use the pills, following the directions, are not causing irreparable damage to their bodies. It is the people who misuse the pills who can overdose and cause long-term damage. It is harmful for those people who read the directions and see that the recommended dose is one pill and then decide to take a handful, he said.
That can cause overdose and serious problems that may not have been apparent before. Miller said some of the side-effects from caffeine pills are nausea, irritability, restlessness and nervousness. He said that other drugs students have been known to use to stay awake include cocaine and the prescription drug Ritalin. “The effects of cocaine are deadly,” he said. “Ritalin should not ever be used by anyone whose doctor has not prescribed it to them. These drugs should not be used as study-aids.”
Dr. Chuck Klink, associate director of counseling and consulting services at Ohio State said that taking caffeine pills to stay awake to study might backfire. “People think that there is a correlation between the amount of time and the results for studying. That usually is counterproductive, especially if the majority of the studying is done the night before,” he said. “People who take these, may go into the classroom awake but they are un-rested, mentally exhausted, and may not perform as well.”
He suggests that students find alternative ways for dealing with the stresses of studying for finals. “Students get so caught up thinking about the adverse outcomes, like failing, and they get paralyzed by fear,” said Klink. He suggests that students set realistic goals, pace themselves, take frequent study breaks, exercise, talk on the phone to a friend, watch TV for a short time, and break the studying up into intervals.
