Teens and Caffeine by Pranjal Karanjkar

Teens and Caffeine 

by Pranjal Karanjkar 

Teens drink caffeine for a variety of reasons. According to medicalnewstoday.com, it is common 

for teens to resort to caffeine to pull an all-nighter to study or to stay alert in school. 

In fact, the average teenager only gets around 6.5-7.5 hours of sleep according to Better Health 

while the recommended amount is 8-10 hours. Because of this, students are often tired and don’t 

perform their best in school. To try and combat the grogginess, students tend to drink large 

amounts of coffee. 

This is somewhat reasonable for teens because they do this out of mental pressure and anxiety. 

Yet, teens don’t know that there are far healthier alternatives that can produce the same 

outcomes! Some include tea, matcha and kombucha. These drinks contain less caffeine and are 

far better for health. 

There are also several unwanted side effects that caffeine produces, for example, insomnia, 

restlessness, headaches, and difficulty concentrating. The recommended caffeine consumption is 

about 1 cup of coffee for teens, and 2 for adults. However, teens often go above this limit but 

when this occurs it becomes unhealthy. 

As previously shown, research shows that coffee and caffeine may not be the best option. This is 

the result of stress and workload, which almost every teen experiences. In South Brunswick High 

School, teens were asked to give their opinion on caffeine. 

Sophomore, Ananya Kulkarni stated her views on caffeine consumption. 

She said, “I think that for teens, drinking coffee is okay once in a while. However, I see teens 

drinking coffee in large amounts in the morning and I don’t see how that could be healthy”. 

On the contrary, many teens stand by caffeine and truly don’t think it is all that bad. 

Sophomore, Srishti Thakur said, “I think that drinking caffeine isn’t that bad. To be honest, it 

helps to stay awake when I have homework from many classes.” 

As shown above, many teens resort to caffeine products, primarily in coffee, to deal with stress 

and time management. Although this may seem like a temporary solution, it can lead to worse 

problems in the future, the most common being addiction. A way to resolve this problem can be 

to slowly reduce the intake or resort to a healthier alternative.