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3 Cups of Coffee Increases Hallucinations

PearsSoap writes "The Telegraph and other sources are pointing out a study on 200 students which has found that a high caffeine intake can cause visual and auditory hallucinations, and can make people think that others are 'out to get them.' The abstract (and full version if you have access) is available. 'The volunteers were questioned about their caffeine intake from products including coffee, tea, energy drinks, chocolate bars and caffeine tablets.'"

51 of 628 comments (clear)

  1. South Park by chill · · Score: 5, Funny

    The study consisted of watching every episode of South Park featuring Tweak.

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    1. Re:South Park by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Funny

      I got fr1st p0st!

      course I have had twenty nine cups of coffee, and my screen looks like a bad knockoff Picaso painting.

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    2. Re:South Park by QuantumPion · · Score: 3, Funny

      Did it just get draftier in here?

      Hey...where did my underpants go?

  2. So by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sooooo...The results of this study show that excessive intake of caffeine makes you high-strung? Fascinating.

    --
    This guy's the limit!
    1. Re:So by Anonymous+Monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm not high strung. I'm fine. I'M FINE OK...Hay, did you see that...Never mind...Their it is again! I said I'm fine. You know my computer screen is flickering a lot...Why are you looking at me like that? Can you open this can of Coke for me, my hands are shaky...I'll need a straw too, I dropped the last can...Actually I had a shaking fit and crushed it. Spilled Coke all over, people looked at me funny as I was licking it off my desk. Or it could be because they are out to get me. Why dose my desk shake like that? Stop saying that, I said I'M FINE! Hay did you see that?

      --
      We are the Borg...
    2. Re:So by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 5, Funny

      Are you OK? Maybe you need to sit down for a few minutes. I'll buy you a coffee.

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    3. Re:So by Capt.DrumkenBum · · Score: 5, Funny

      "This means that coffee doesn't make you paranoid...."

      Who told you to say that?

      --
      If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
    4. Re:So by QuantumPion · · Score: 2, Funny

      See that's what I tried to tell my co-workers! I'm NOT paranoid, it's just that everyone thinks I am!

    5. Re:So by geminidomino · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hitting the sauce a little early today, are we, Mr. Garibaldi?

  3. 7 cups? by robthebloke · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was 7 cups of coffee on the news this morning, mind you I might have hallucinated that.

    1. Re:7 cups? by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe this story is a hallucination, and you just think you read it.....

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
  4. Ahh but... by Pvt_Ryan · · Score: 3, Funny

    You are not paranoid if they really are out to get you, which lets face it they are..

    1. Re:Ahh but... by DrLang21 · · Score: 2, Funny

      And you people mocked my tin hat. Who's mocking now!

      --
      I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
    2. Re:Ahh but... by Anonymous+Monkey · · Score: 2, Funny

      That one guy over by the mind control device.

      --
      We are the Borg...
  5. the words "no shit" by shiba_mac · · Score: 3, Funny

    ..come to mind.

  6. Three cups? by rvw · · Score: 5, Funny

    So now it's one man and three cups? I thought the hallucination was about two girls!

    1. Re:Three cups? by wild_quinine · · Score: 3, Funny

      So now it's one man and three cups? I thought the hallucination was about two girls!

      With the two girls, it's straightforward PTSD.

  7. Tags by Thyamine · · Score: 5, Funny

    I love the correlationisnotcausation tag. It gets applied to any story like this, and while it often seems to be accurate, I imagine someone would stick it on a story titled 'Study shows stabbing yourself may increase blood loss'.

    --
    I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
  8. Re:60 cups by Fred_A · · Score: 2, Funny

    I remember reading somewhere that 60 cups of coffee would supposedly yield the same level of hallucinations as 1 dose of LSD...

    Hmmm, where was that study from ?

    60 cups of US coffee are like 3 cups of coffee elsewhere. And while I confess to not having tried LSD, I've already had way more than 3 large cups of real coffee in a day. And nothing much happened.

    So unless you give more data I'm not convinced. If it's a European (preferably southern) study, then maybe there's something to it.

    (granted, there now are ways to get coffee in the US instead of just warm water with a brown crayon dipped in but us Euro people used to be fairly puzzled over there for quite a while)

    --

    May contain traces of nut.
    Made from the freshest electrons.
  9. Do the dew! by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 3, Funny

    I enjoy a lovely Mountain Dew high every morning at work, and never suffer any ill effects... other than the giant spiders. Those can be a bit off putting. The glowing, telepathic ferrets usually keep them at bay, though. Hallucinations! Pfft! As if! Now excuse me. I must kiss teh sky.

    1. Re:Do the dew! by MaskedSlacker · · Score: 4, Funny

      Are you sure that's not a guy you're kissing?

  10. Re:60 cups by MindKata · · Score: 4, Funny

    "That's 14 litres of water"

    They said, "cups of coffee", no mention of adding water ;) ... although I admit, it may get a bit chewy by the 60th cup full. 8)

    --
    There are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.
  11. Re:I call BS by PinkyDead · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's this "posting on slashdot" thing you keep mumbling about? And what's an "internet"?

    Dude, you gotta snap out of it. We've a big stack of betamax tapes over here for you to watch, if you'd just come back to us.

    --
    Genesis 1:32 And God typed :wq!
  12. Which are my real friends by harl · · Score: 4, Funny

    Great now I have to figure out which are my real friends and which ones I'm making up.

    --
    I find being offended by me offensive.
  13. Re:60 cups by ben0207 · · Score: 3, Funny

    During Uni I once crushed up some coffee granules and snorted a couple of fat lines.

    I was fucked beyond words for a few days.

    Then I tried it with Pro Plus.

    --
    cmd-q.co.uk - some sort of stupid fucking internet bullshit
  14. Re:60 cups by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Insomnia....

    --
    "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
  15. Anecdotal Evidence is Crap, but... by StaticEngine · · Score: 4, Funny

    Back in college, when I was still super driven to be the best at everything, I used to down several cups of coffee and tea at night in order to remain awake and focused while doing my homework. It got to the point where after drinking the tea, I would suck on the teabag (keep your wiseass comments to yourself, thanks) because I'd read that saliva could extract even more caffiene.

    This all ended one night when I woke up at about 3AM (after staying up until 1 doing some Physics III homework) with what sounded like a couple of dozen people having a rally in my head. I couldn't make out individual voices, words, or sentences, but the sound was distinct: lots of people were talking over one another, LOUDLY, and there was no way to get away from it or make it quieter. It was, frankly, extremely frightening, even though it only took a minute to realize what was going on and why. I wound up lying on a couch in the common area with a pillow over my head for about an hour, wishing the noise would stop so I could actually get some sleep. Eventually, it quieted enough that I could crawl back into bed and catch another four or so hours before needing to get up for class.

    Anyway, caffiene: it's a drug, and now I limit myself to one cup in the AM and occasionally another in the afternoon, or a very small cup with dessert. Auditory hallucinations are no fun, and I found that I value the quality of a healthy life much more than the rewards of intense focused work these days.

  16. That can't be right. by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The voices inside my head are telling me that this study is severely flawed, and I should just relax and have another cup of coffee...

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  17. Only 3 cups? What about 100 cups? by smooth+wombat · · Score: 3, Funny

    Obligatory Futurama.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  18. Re:60 cups by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    *whoosh*

  19. Re:60 cups by MaskedSlacker · · Score: 2, Funny

    WHY!?!?!

  20. Re:60 cups by mhall119 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Actually it makes more of a guggling sound when it brews.

    Oh. OH! Nevermind.

    --
    http://www.mhall119.com
  21. This explains ... by PPH · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... why coffee makes this seem like a great place to work. The only problem is the one, terrifying side effect:

    The coffee wears off.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  22. oops! that wasn't coffee by GoodNicksAreTaken · · Score: 2, Funny

    Second study finds that after two cups of coffee you may mistake your first cup of shroom tea for your third of coffee.

  23. 300 Cups by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2, Funny

    3 cups might cause hallucinations, but 300 cups causes you to slow time down and save all of your friends from a raging fire. (Obligatory Futurama Reference)

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  24. Re:RTFA by ubrgeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    > I have done so for more than 25 years with no hallucinations (as far as I can tell) or baseless paranoia.

    He's right. We haven't noticed any such behavior as we secretly watch him through his window.

    --
    Bark less. Wag more.
  25. So ... by Tired+and+Emotional · · Score: 2, Funny

    If I ingest less caffeine, does this mean fewer people will be out to get me?

    --
    Squirrel!
  26. Re:RTFA by UncleTogie · · Score: 2, Funny

    M'self, I drink 2 3-liters of Dr. Pepper a day... and have yet to have seen a darn thing...

    Must be doin' it wrong.

    --
    Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
  27. Re:60 cups by Ant+P. · · Score: 3, Funny

    Suppository.

  28. Re:RTFA by DogAlmity · · Score: 3, Funny

    I would tend to agree - I drink more coffee than that before 9am. I drink coffee all day long, even into the night. I have done so for more than 25 years with no...baseless paranoia

    So what kind of paranoia did you experience?

  29. Re:RTFA by Majik+Sheff · · Score: 5, Funny

    The reason you haven't seen a darn thing is because the diabetes has destroyed your retinas.

    --
    Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
  30. Re:60 cups by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Funny

    I hate suppositories! They cling to my teeth, they taste like shit and usually they don't work at all, they just upset my stomach.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  31. Re:60 cups by prockcore · · Score: 2, Funny

    you never ate sugar?

    Have you ever tried sugar? .... or PCP?

  32. Re:60 cups by snspdaarf · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...they taste like shit...

    Don't try to recycle them

    --
    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
  33. Re:RTFA by BoredAtWorkWhatElse · · Score: 2, Funny

    1. How are you going to know if you're hallucinating? Unless you are always asking someone, you'll never know for sure.

    You also have to figure out if you are not hallucinating the person you are asking.

  34. Re:60 cups by legirons · · Score: 3, Funny

    For the most part, LSD doesn't cause true hallucinations -- it distorts things. You'll see the wood grain on your desk flowing, or the tree waving at you... but you won't see a pink unicorn in the room

    That's because she's invisible!

    (https link for the paranoid)

  35. Re:RTFA by suggsjc · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not true. I put worms in my tequila...helps with the flavor.

    --
    When I have a kid, I want to put him in one of those strollers for twins and then run around the mall looking frantic.
  36. Different reactions for each, I guess by zooblethorpe · · Score: 2, Funny

    Reading all the responses here, it sure looks like different folks have widely different reactions to caffeine -- no big surprise, but big medical in the media has yet to understand that everyone's a bit different, and no, one size definitely does not fit all.

    Anyway, the one time in my life that I *have* hallucinated was after drinking far too much of the witches' brew coffee at a local greasy spoon, the dregs of the pot that had been sitting on the burner all afternoon and had simmered down to sludge by just before closing time when we usually showed up. I had maybe half a dozen cups of that, and my friend and I were having a ball talking about all sorts of wackiness. Once the diner kicked us out to close, we went driving on back country roads like usual to catch some air in some places and continue talking.

    Aside from general perceptual distortions, every time we passed a Mobil gas station, I felt like I was getting sucked into the red "O" in the signs.

    All the winding roads soon made me carsick though, and we pulled over. By that point it was around 2AM or so. The local sherriff pulled over a few minutes later -- "All right boys, whaddya been drinking?"

    Both of us: "Coffee! Coffeecoffeecoffeesir, toomuchcoffee!"
    Sherriff: "Huh... well, I'm'a have to give you a breathalyzer test."
                            (given the look on the sherriff's face, we must have scored negative values)
                            "Boys, ... It's 2AM. Go home."

    But yeah, the next day was unpleasant, even without the M&Ms. :-P

    Cheers,

    --
    "What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
    "A four-foot prune."
  37. Re:RTFA by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 2, Funny

    My typical day started with a visit to the clown for a #2 with a large coke.

    I presume this has some other meaning than my immediate interpretation :)

    Well, let's break this down. It fits my morning perfectly if the following assumptions are true:
    "clown" = "can"
    "#2" = "#2"
    "with a large coke" = "and vacating the previous night's beverage"

    --
    This guy's the limit!
  38. Ancedotal fun by HalfOfOne · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sorry to add to the tide of "I remember this one time" posts but I had to share this one.

    A buddy of mine decided to experiment with a dose of LSD against pretty much everyone who told him he was being an idiot. He dropped it, and awhile later we all went out to grab dinner at a local diner in Chicago. Almost as if on queue, a group of 20 people from a country/western place came in in full costume (poofy dresses, cowboy hats, chaps, etc) and sat at a bunch of tables across from us. One of them had apparently won a cardboard cutout of a life-size Elvis. They'd propped it up against the wall and kept joking to it during their meal.

    There was a silent agreement at the table to pretend everything was normal and to not make any mention of this to our LSD-tripping buddy, who spent the entire time checking and rechecking to see if Elvis was really in the building with a bunch of cowboys.

  39. Re:RTFA by Piranhaa · · Score: 3, Funny

    All soft drinks are evil. They cause insulin spikes, which contribute to obesity. They cause insulin resistance long term. And the phosphoric acid leaches calcium from your bones causing brittle bones in old age. Diet soft drinks are no better. Stop drinking them before it's too late.

    Sorry, it's not the "insulin spikes" that contribute to obesity. It's when your body is so used to sugar that you build up an insulin resistance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin_resistance. Believe me, I rely on insulin spikes after my workouts. It allows me to ingest a bunch of protein immediately after and use the insulin spike (from eating fruit) as a quick way to pump the protein into my muscles.

    I haven't drank a soft drink in years, haven't touched a fast food joint in over a year, and keep sweets to a minimum. It's really sad to see the same guys at the vending machines every day, drinking a coke, eating a bag of chips and a chocolate bar for their lunch. It's really sad seeing so many people uneducated that eating 6-8 meals per day can actually LOWER your body fat.