(P22-042-24) Does Consumption of Energy Drinks Affect Sleep of Graduate Healthcare Students?

Objectives: Graduate students in healthcare professions rely on energy drinks to study longer hours. This study investigated a correlation between habitual consumption of energy drinks and sleep duration. In addition, preferred energy drink brands, reasons for consumption, awareness of ingredients, and experience of side effects were examined.

Methods: Of the 329 eligible didactic students in the physician assistant, physical therapy, and occupational therapy programs at Touro University Nevada, 126 volunteers (70% female) completed an electronic, anonymous survey (38% response rate) in August 2023. Participants reported frequency, amount and brand of energy drinks consumed, reasons for consumption, awareness of ingredients, adverse effects, and hours and quality (good, average, or poor) of sleep in the past 30 days. Responses were summarized using descriptive statistics. The association between energy drink consumption and duration of sleep was assessed using Pearson correlation. Consumption and sleep duration were compared based on quality of sleep using one-way ANOVA.

Results: Regular users (46%) consumed energy drinks in a range of once a week to multiple times a day, whereas 43% consumed less than once a month or never. The most popular energy drink was Celsius (used by 49%). The top reasons for consumption were to improve mental alertness (62%), stay awake while studying (57%), and taste (52%). When consumed, 85% limited their intake to 6-12 ounces per day. The awareness of ingredients was high for caffeine (89%) and sugar (84%) but not for other ingredients such as L-Carnitine (48%) or ginseng (38%). Most frequent side effects were heart palpitations (48%) and anxiety (43%). Participants slept on average 6.8 ± 1.0 hours a night. Consumption did not correlate with sleep duration and did not vary by quality of sleep. However, sleep duration differed between sleep quality groups (p < 0.001): students with poor sleep received about one hour less sleep than students with good sleep.

Conclusions: Although students used energy drinks to stay alert and prolong their studying hours, most consumed moderate amounts which may explain the lack of association between consumption and sleep duration. Low awareness of certain ingredients and high frequency of reported side effects are concerning.

Funding Sources: None