Workers who are subject to “shift work” suffer from increased tiredness due to the interruption in their biological clock. This disruption can lead to more accidents and less productivity at work.
Researchers looked at workers who drank caffeine, whether in coffee or energy drinks and compared those results to workers who took naps and placebos. The results: work-related tests showed those on the caffeine suffered significantly less mistakes and had better memory, attention, perception and reasoning.
“It seems reasonable to assume that reduced errors are associated with fewer injuries, although we cannot quantify such a reduction.” says lead researcher Katharine Ker of the London School of Tropical Medicine.