Many high school students feels sleep-deprived. Loads of homework, projects, and assignments leave kids with no choice but to resort to using enhancements to alter their alertness, like caffeine.

Caffeine based industries like Starbucks Coffee dominate the food and beverage industry with a net-worth of 2.9 billion dollars. With dozens of scrumptious, flavored drinks, the thirst for caffeine has never been greater. Even if one is not craving all the flavors, drinking straight up espresso shots is another option. But, drinking espresso can be worse compared to a drink with lots of fluff and add ins.

Despite the short term effects of caffeine, it also affects the body in a number of negative ways.

“Caffeine may promote dehydration and disrupt normal digestion. Additionally, caffeine is addictive and at the root of caffeine addiction is a physiological dependency that forms within the brain,” Global Healing Center.

Addiction? Dehydration? That is not even the beginning. Increased heart rate and uncontrollable shakes are also side effects of caffeine.

An alternative to drinking loads of caffeine on a daily basis, would be to drink organic teas. A variety of green and white teas have low caffeine and the types of energy they contain are generally more natural and less harmful to the body.

Luckily some students understand the negative effects of caffeine from personal experience.

“If I have a coffee in the morning, I do get energy, but it’s only for like 2 hours. By sixth hour my head hurts and I crash, and I feel like I need more. So it’s like a cycle. If I don’t eat, and I just drink coffee, I get really jittery and even distracted in class. When I get jittery, I can’t focus in class, so it’s just better for me to get sleep. Coffee is not a substitution for sleep,” said sophomore Claire Donohoe.

On the other hand, some students depend on coffee to get school work done, or even to just stay awake in class, especially the more demanding classes.

“I like coffee. I’m already kind of jittery, so coffee calms me down, and makes me more focused. One bad thing is having coffee breath. I drink coffee everyday, because without it, I feel all over the place, and I won’t be able to concentrate. My brain’s all over the place. I wake up really early and go to bed super late. With all of my difficult classes, I constantly pull all-nighters to finish work. Seriously, if I don’t have coffee, I will fall asleep in sixth hour,” said junior Cat Stephens.

Whether it be more focused or more scattered, the results from caffeine consumption may vary. Even though one may feel like caffeine helps them, and they need it, that may be the addictive additives. Finding an alternative that has low caffeine may be a good option for those who feel they are dependent on caffeine.