It’s the middle of the afternoon and you’re feeling extremely sluggish. So what’s the best way to wake yourself up? For most of us the answer is caffeine. Whether in tea, coffee or a fizzy drink, caffeine is the world’s most popular drug — but is it really the most effective pick-me-up? To find out we decided, as part of the new series of the BBC’s Trust Me I’m a Doctor, to test caffeine against some unlikely sounding alternatives: sage, fudge, chewing gum and electric shocks.
We started by filming a caffeine experiment run by Professor Peter Rogers of the University of Bristol. For our experiment he recruited 20 people, half of whom never normally touch caffeine, while the other half were regular caffeine imbibers.