No Coffee Break

Wellness is a major movement these days. I'm for wellness, but sometimes I think things are taken out of context to support the desired conclusion.

A recent wellness newsletter included a short article about a study. The individuals who participated in the study trained in the morning on verbal memory, motor, and perceptual learning tasks. Then they were split into 3 groups.
* Group 1 got a 60-90 minute nap
* Group 2 listened to a book on tape and received a pill that had caffeine the equivalent of a 10oz cup of coffee
* Group 3 listened to a book on tape and received a placebo (sugar pill)

Then later they were tested on what they had learned in the morning. Results:
* Group 1 (nap group) tested best
* Group 2 (caffeine group) tested worst
* Group 3 (placebo) tested second best

Conclusion: You might want to skip that cup of coffee (The title of the article)

It's interesting to note that the nap group is the only group that didn't have to absorb more material (listening to a book on tape) that might interfere with what they learned earlier.

Why does coffee get the bad rap here? Coffee wasn't even part of the study. It simply has caffeine in common with the pill that was used. Maybe it would have been different had coffee been used.

My conclusion: Naps help performance.