Algorithm provides a personalized caffeine strategy for alertness

A caffeine optimization web tool helps design effective strategies to maximize alertness while avoiding excessive caffeine consumption, according to preliminary findings from a new study.

Using multiple sleep deprivation and shift work scenarios, the researchers generated caffeine consumption tips using the 2B-Alert Web 2.0 open access tool and compared the results to the guidelines of the 2B-Alert Web 2.0. American Army. Their analysis revealed that the solutions suggested by the quantitative caffeine optimization tool required an average of 40% less caffeine or increased vigilance by an additional 40%.

"Our 2B-Alert web tool allows a person, in our case members of our service, to optimize the beneficial effects of caffeine while minimizing its consumption," said lead researcher Jaques Reifman, Ph.D. ., Principal Investigator at the Department of the Army. for Advanced Medical Technology, serving at the command of research and medical development of the US Army at Fort. Detrick, Maryland.

According to the authors, caffeine is the most widely used stimulant to counteract the effects of sleep deprivation on alertness. However, to be safe and effective, you have to consume the right amount at the right time.

Last year, at the 2018 SLEEP show in Baltimore, Reifman presented data comparing the algorithm to caffeine dosing strategies from four previously published experimental studies on sleep loss. The current study has extended his team's earlier work by incorporating the automated caffeine guidance algorithm into an open access tool, so users can capture several factors: the maximum alertness periods desired in a standby program / awakening, the minimum level of alertness and the maximum tolerable daily intake of caffeine.

With this additional feature, the 2B-Alert Web 2.0 tool now allows users to predict the vigilance of an "average" individual based on his / her sleep / wake schedule and his / her consumption schedule. caffeine. It also allows users to automatically obtain the optimal caffeine timing and doses to achieve maximum alertness at the desired times.

This free tool will have practical applications that go beyond the military and research lab, noted Reifman.

"For example, if you go out all night, you need to be at your maximum between, say, between 9 pm and 5 pm and want to consume as little caffeine as possible, when and how much caffeine should you consume?" he said. "That's the type of question that 2B-Alert was designed to answer."

The research summary was recently published in an online supplement of the journal To sleep and will be presented on Wednesday, June 12th in San Antonio at SLEEP 2019, the 33rd annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS), a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.