A London study of more than 9,600 children found links between caffeine consumption, shorter sleep and small differences in brain structure, but researchers cautioned that it does not prove cause and effect.
Researchers in London say even modest caffeine intake in children may be linked with less sleep and small differences in brain structure, with the strongest signals appearing in youngsters who drank caffeinated soft drinks. According to a study published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, scientists analysed data from 9,632 children aged nine to 11 and found that higher caffeine consumption was associated with a smaller cortical surface area, particularly in 22 regions across four lobes of the brain.
The findings do not show that caffeine directly alters brain development, but they add to concerns about how early exposure to caffeinated drinks may interact with sleep and mental wellbeing. Divyangana Rakesh, the senior author and a researcher at King’s College London, said caffeine has become so routine that its effects on children can be overlooked, even though, as she noted, it is a psychoactive substance that remains largely unregulated in young people. The study found that the children who consumed more caffeine tended to sleep for shorter periods and also reported more symptoms involving attention, mood and behaviour.
The researchers said the brain differences were visible at relatively low levels of intake, including roughly one caffeinated drink a week. Most of the caffeine in the study came from soft drinks, though tea and coffee also contributed. The team suggested that shorter sleep could partly explain the patterns they observed, although they stressed that the study was observational and could not prove cause and effect.
That caution has been echoed by other experts reviewing the work. The Science Media Centre said specialists who examined the paper pointed out that the timing of the measurements makes it impossible to know whether caffeine led to the sleep and brain findings, or whether other factors such as sugar intake, lifestyle or broader family habits played a part. Even so, the study adds to a growing body of research linking sleep disruption in children with mental health concerns, and it underscores why paediatricians and parents are being urged to pay closer attention to caffeine use in pre-teens.
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