Coffee has long been associated with long nights studying, or early office mornings when you need to have that perk. It’s a much-loved drink for a variety of reasons including its great taste, but also the spark of energy that it can give you at just the right time.
What is intelligence?
Can it make you smarter though? Intelligence is often a subjective measure and a lot of the time someone will be seen as clever just because they can remember more detail than the next person. Often it’s seen as the ability to complete complex tasks, but there are other forms of intelligence too.
The person with the highest IQ in history might not know the first thing about how to soothe a baby when it’s crying, which is surely a form of intelligence. One thing is for certain though is that your brain shuts down when you’re tired. Whether it is taking an IQ test, passing an exam or soothing a baby, everything is harder when your body needs sleep.
The hidden benefit of caffeine
Most people are aware that the buzz you get from a cup of coffee is mostly to do with the amount of caffeine that is in the drink. One thing they may not be aware of is that caffeine also has another great side effect, in that it stimulates the production of dopamine in your body.
Dopamine is well known for making you feel good, but it’s not just its feel-good factor that is a benefit. Dopamine has been found to increase your levels of motivation and focus. It plays a vital role in your body for your overall well-being.
The combined effect of dopamine and caffeine can give you a higher level of mental processing that will allow your brain to perform at its full capability. It will not only give you that extra energy, but it will channel that energy into a more focused and motivated you.
So can coffee make you smarter?
Does coffee actually make you smarter though? It would be hard to make a case for coffee making you perform better at mental processing such as problem-solving, but what it can do is make it easier for you to take in and process information. You can use that information to then help you pass tests and make better decisions, and increase your knowledge.
If you’re tired, then coffee can bring you back to your natural level of intelligence where otherwise you would have made poor choices and would have made mistakes.
The double benefit
Coffee doesn’t make you smarter per se, but it can give you the tools that you need to improve your intelligence and acquire a greater knowledge to improve yourself. The caffeine can increase your energy levels and dopamine will make you happy and give you focus and motivation. Not only will it help with your intelligence, you also get that incredible taste in the process.
