Do Energy Drinks Help You Focus?

Last Updated on April 23, 2023 by admin

Today is that big presentation for a project you’ve been working on for weeks. You need to stay clear-headed, but you’re a bundle of nerves. Can sipping on an energy drink help you focus or will it only make you more jittery?

Energy drinks can improve your focus due to the high amounts of sugar and caffeine in every can. These ingredients trigger a fight or flight response that makes you feel alert and ready to take on the world. Keep in mind this effect lasts for about an hour, so make use of your razor-sharp focus while you have it.

In today’s article, we’ll discuss more on how energy drinks can improve your focus and what other benefits are derived from energy drinks. If you’d rather help your focus using more natural, healthier means, we’ll offer some suggestions. Keep reading!

How Do Energy Drinks Improve Your Focus?

Even if you’re not cramming for a big project, having focus in your day-to-day life is very advantageous. You can concentrate on the task at hand, work more expediently, and perhaps even produce a higher quality of work.

Can you really focus better if you polish off a can of your favorite energy drink? Indeed, you can, but the way it happens isn’t the healthiest thing in the world. All the caffeine and sugar begin doing a number on your body about 10 minutes after consumption of the beverage.

Do not miss our article: Are Energy Drinks Vegan?

First, caffeine will block adenosine, the organic compound that makes you feel sleepy after you’ve eaten a good meal. This happens after the glucose or simple sugars you ingest through food becomes glycogen. The glycogen is then transferred to adenosine tri-phosphate or ATP, which allows cells to send energy back and forth between one another.

Without enough ATP, it breaks down back to adenosine. The adenosine levels increase in the blood, preventing the activity of some neurons and contributing to that sleepy feeling.

Okay, so you won’t be tired, which can really distract you and take away from your focus. To get you jolted and feeling concentrated, brain neurons are activated by the sheer amount of caffeine in your energy drink. As the neurons flash on, your pituitary gland notices and makes adrenaline in response. The adrenaline kickstarts the body’s fight or flight response.

Before you know it, you’re feeling quite amped up and hyper-aware, which can help you zero in on your project or task and get it done quickly.

How Long Will You Feel Focused?

You were a bit doubtful, so you decided to enjoy an energy drink and see what it could do for you. Wow, you’re quite impressed! You’re only about a quarter of the way through the can, but you already feel so much more focused than you usually do. How long will this awesome feeling last? All day?

That’s wishful thinking, sadly. You won’t even get several hours of benefits out of the average can of energy drink. About 15 minutes to 45 minutes after consumption, the levels of caffeine in the blood are at their peak. This is where your alertness, focus, and concentration all go into overdrive.

This feeling is helpful, but short-lived. About an hour in, when your liver absorbs the remaining sugar in the energy drink, things start to change. The caffeine is not fully absorbed, but it is partially. Like what happens when you ingest a lot of sweets, once your body processes the sugar, you come crashing down hard.

Your energy levels may be worse than before you consumed the energy drink. Now you’re in an even more dire predicament, as your ability to focus is completely out the window. So what do you do to get back into a productive mindset? Reach for another can of energy drink, of course. This resets the process, but you’ll still only get about an hour of focus and energy before the crash inevitably hits once more.

Do keep in mind that the caffeine in your bloodstream from one can of energy drink may take as long as 12 hours to dissipate. At that point, you might start having caffeine withdrawal, which can cause headaches and mood changes.

Natural Ways to Boost Your Focus

If you don’t want to mess with the energy see-saw that a can of Red Bull or Rockstar forces you on, that’s not your only option for more focus. You can also try these methods.

Prioritize Your Sleep

This 2007 report in the journal Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment found that memory and focus both suffer when you’re deprived of sleep. Adults should aim to get between seven and nine hours of sleep every night.

Make a Natural Brain Health Remedy

If you’re working on amending your sleep habits, in the meantime, you can whip up a natural health remedy for your brain. Consume more rosemary, either through Rosmarinic acid supplements or by ingesting the herb itself. You might notice an increase in your cognition.

You can also try curcumin, a chemical compound that’s bright yellow. Studies like this one from the International Journal of Molecular Sciences confirm that curcumin can lessen neuroinflammation to keep your cognition strong.

Consume a Diet Rich in Antioxidants

If you’re not getting enough antioxidants in your diet, doing so will certainly boost your focus. From green tea to kale, raspberries, artichokes, strawberries, blueberries, pecans, and even a square of dark chocolate or too, you can naturally enhance your problem-solving abilities as well as your memory and attention.

Conclusion

If you’re struggling to focus, you can rely on energy drinks to help renew your concentration, but there’s a catch. The boost of adrenaline you get from all that caffeine and sugar really only sticks around for an hour. After that, you crash, leaving you in a worse state than before you cracked open that can.

To enjoy more lasting focus in a healthier context, add more antioxidants to your diet, try rosemary and curcumin, and get lots of sleep. Best of luck!