Tomorrow is Ash Wedneday.

Are you giving up coffee for Lent?

No. Neither am I.

There is good evidence that caffeine provides a stimulus to mental alertness. 

It also acts as a legal performance enhancer for sports – the AIS has a guide to it use. 

(Alex Watson was ahead of his time)

And it is well known that all decent computer software is developed in the early hours of the morning ‘under the influence’ of caffeine. (What ever happened to Jolt Cola?)

And we have already reported in WILT that Paul Erdos says that “A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems”

However, too much caffeine causes sleeplessness, irritability and nausea.

How much to have?

Researchers at Penn State University to the rescue!

Caffeine Zone is an iPhone app that monitors, predicts, and displays a user’s caffeine level in real-time based on a pharmacokinetic model and the user’s input of when they consume caffeine. 

The app warns you if you’re about to consume a coffee that will put you over the sleep threshold, while it also alerts you if you could do with one more cup.

Caffeine Zone users can enter their caffeine consumption and the app generates a line chart of predicted caffeine level for the next 24 hours. It also shows a cognitive active zone, an area of level where most people will feel active, and sleep zone, an area of caffeine level where most people will be able to sleep. These values are adjustable. These zones can be changed to represent individual differences”

How much Caffeine in my drink?

According to the International Coffee Association, an espresso has about 115 mg, Instant Coffee 65, Cup of tea about 60mg, Coca Cola about 50mg and Red Bull 80g.

See you in the green zone.