There was a time in my life where I would drink coffee at all hours of the night. Now if I drink coffee past noon I need a nap, but for a goodly season, there was never a bad time for a caffeine hit. Normally that would mean drinking endless refills of some flavored diner coffee between the hours of midnight and 3:00am, ranting about Kant or Kripke or Wittgenstein (because that’s what you do when you’re 20 years old and an obnoxious philosophy major (“obnoxious” here is probably redundant)). This also happened to coincide to the time in my life when I was the most reckless, which I would have chalked up to being in my 20s, an objectively reckless era.
But a new study published recently suggests that maybe it was the coffee all along. Researchers from the University of Texas, El Paso find that drinking coffee at night “can increase impulsive behavior, potentially leading to reckless actions.”
As reported by Medical Xpress, the study was published in the journal iScience. For it, UTEP biologists examined how caffeine affects the behavior of a species of fruit fly that shares “genetic and neural parallels with humans.” The fruit flies underwent a variety of experiments whereby they were given caffeine (or not) under different conditions, including during the day versus at night. The flies were then assessed for impulsive behavior, in particular how they reacted to a strong flow of air.
Strong airflow is a “naturally unpleasant stimulus” for fruit flies and generally prefer to remain still during them. Flying in such conditions is considered impulsive and reckless for the flies due to their lack of control.
The researchers found that flies who consumed caffeine at night were less able to suppress movement, thus more prone to behaving impulsively. Meanwhile, fruit flies given caffeine during the day didn’t take part in the same reckless flying.
They also found that the effect was far more prominent in female fruit flies than in their male counterparts. “Flies don’t have human hormones like estrogen, suggesting that other genetic or physiological factors are driving the heightened sensitivity in females… Uncovering these mechanisms will help us better understand how nighttime physiology and sex-specific factors modulate caffeine’s effects.”
Or maybe the female fruit flies were sick of the male fruit flies bullshit, and since they were so jazzed on caffeine anyway and not getting any sleep any time soon, they figured anywhere is better than here so why not whip around in the wind for a bit? But what do I know, my wife’s not a fruit fly. Unless…
The UTEP researchers state that the findings could have negative implications for those working the night shift, like health care and military personnel, those who use caffeine to stay alert, “particularly females.”
My personal takeaway from the study? Put a little cup of coffee next to the fruit fly trap.
Go on, pop in the hole in the cellophane and have a sup on some apple cider vinegar. What’s the worst that could happen?
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
