Didn't get enough sleep last night? An extra cup of coffee might not be the answer. At least that's what a new study from Michigan State University has found.

Researchers looked at whether caffeine can help people perform better at certain tasks after a night without sleep. The study included 276 participants, who completed both a simple attention task and a more difficult "placekeeping" task.

For the attention task, participants had to press a button as soon as an image appeared on a screen. For the placekeeping task, they had to complete a series of tasks in a specific order without skipping or repeating a step.

Some of the participants then went home to sleep, while the others stayed awake in the laboratory all night.

The next morning, all of the participants took a capsule that contained either 200 milligrams of caffeine or a placebo. They then repeated both tasks.

The researchers found that those who didn't sleep performed worse at both tasks. However, caffeine did reduce the effects of sleep deprivation for the simple attention task. But for most participants, caffeine had little effect on how they performed in the more difficult placekeeping task.

"Caffeine may improve the ability to stay awake and attend to a task," said lead researcher Kimberly Fenn. "But it doesn't do much to prevent the sort of procedural errors that can cause things like medical mistakes and car accidents."

Fenn said that if the study had shown that caffeine significantly reduced procedural errors after a night of little sleep, this would have been important news for people like surgeons and pilots, who have to perform complicated tasks when sleep deprived.

"Instead, our findings underscore the importance of prioritizing sleep," she said.

According to America's National Sleep Foundation, adults aged 18 to 64 should get seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Those 65 and older should get seven to eight hours, while teenagers aged 14 to 17 should get eight to 10 hours — and younger children should sleep even more.

Discussion

1.What are your thoughts on the findings of this study?

2.When was the last time you had a sleepless night?

3.Do you drink much coffee? If so, what time of day do you usually have it? If not, why not?

4.What would you say is the most difficult aspect of your job?

5.Would you rather be a surgeon or pilot? Why?

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