Caffeine
Caffeine is absorbed within 30 to 60 minutes after drinking a cup of coffee and the effect of caffeine lasts from 4 to 6 hours. Pharmacologically, caffeine acts as a central nervous system stimulator, a point that is well made by the coffee ad on TV which calls it “the think drink.” “Caffeine speeds up reaction time and improves automatic processing skills like doing arithmetic problems and proofreading,” says author Stephen Braun “But for more complicated tasks, like complex word problems, caffeine has also been shown to worsen performance.”