Coffee and Your Mood
Coffee may help fend off the blues. Several research papers have shown the caffeine in coffee may increase the amount and activity of the brain chemical serotonin. Low levels of serotonin have been linked to depression. And this serotonin boost may help explain why a study from the U.K. found people who drink coffee in the morning feel friendlier, happier, and more content.
However too much caffeine can heighten your feelings of tension and anxiety, so sayes a study from Singapore. It can also crank up your stress levels if you’re already feeling frazzled. “Too much” depends on how much caffeine your system is used to dealing with, the authors say. So if you’re a two-cup-a-day person, you’d probably have to drink double that amount to feel these negative mood effects. At the same time, if you don’t drink much coffee, smaller doses of caffeine could trigger anxious feelings, the authors say.
Coffee may help fend off the blues. Several research papers have shown the caffeine in coffee may increase the amount and activity of the brain chemical serotonin. Low levels of serotonin have been linked to depression. And this serotonin boost may help explain why a study from the U.K. found people who drink coffee in the morning feel friendlier, happier, and more content.
However too much caffeine can heighten your feelings of tension and anxiety, so sayes a study from Singapore. It can also crank up your stress levels if you’re already feeling frazzled. “Too much” depends on how much caffeine your system is used to dealing with, the authors say. So if you’re a two-cup-a-day person, you’d probably have to drink double that amount to feel these negative mood effects. At the same time, if you don’t drink much coffee, smaller doses of caffeine could trigger anxious feelings, the authors say.
