Caffeine's Impact Upon Creativity: Is It Positive or Negative?

As you know, coffee, unless it’s decaf, contains caffeine, sometimes quite a bit of caffeine, depending upon the strength of the blend, and caffeine not only enhances physical performance but also heightens mental alertness and short-term memory, improves concentration and focus, and increases the ability to solve problems and to make decisions that involve rational thinking.     

Some studies have shown yet another benefit of coffee, and that is how it “appears to improve cognitive function and decrease the risk of depression;” therefore, making you more apt to be creative (Hensrud, 2014, para. 4). What’s more, other studies have demonstrated that drinking coffee induces a euphoric state that often supersedes a stage of enlightenment in which you are more apt to experience creative ideas and insights (Vanderbilt, 2010).

Can Coffee Actually Suppress Creativity?  

Then again, as is often the case when it comes to studies, it seems that controversy surrounds the question of the impact caffeine has upon creativity and whether that impact is positive or negative. For instance, Maria Konnikova (2013) noted in an article for The New Yorker that the improved concentration and focus we get from caffeine comes at a cost, and that cost is our creative thinking. She says this is the case because the acts associated with creativity involve linking ideas, entities, and concepts in novel ways, an ability that “depends in part on the very thing that caffeine seeks to prevent: a wandering, unfocused mind.”

Complicating matters, caffeine also inhibits sleep, another mental process necessary for creative thinking. A 2009 study, for instance, demonstrated that individuals who experience REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement associate with dreaming) performed better on creative-thinking tests than individuals who napped or rested but did not enter the REM cycle. Why? Because during REM, our brains integrate unassociated information so that, upon waking, we are more adept at solving problems we had tried to solve before sleeping but couldn’t. As Konnikova (2013) says, “Sleep deprivation has also been linked to negative effects on other elements associated with creativity and thought clarity: it diminishes emotional intelligence, constructive thinking, and the ability to cope with stress.” 

Can Caffeine Simulate the Creative Mind?

n the other hand, James Hamblin, writing for The Atlantic (2013), argues that Konnikova is wrong and caffeine does not so much undermine our creativity as stimulate it. While Hamblin does not cite any studies to support his argument, he does quote Stephen Braun, author of Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine (n.d.), who explained that caffeine “blocks the adenosine receptors in the brain.” What this means, according to Braun, as quoted by Hamblin, is that caffeine is an “indirect stimulant, as opposed to, say, amphetamine which liberates dopamine, a directly stimulating neurotransmitter. By blocking adenosine receptors, caffeine allows the brain's own stimulating neurotransmitters (i.e. glutamate and dopamine) to do their thing with greater gusto and less restraint.”

The problem with such intense focus, as Konnikova points out and Hamblin agrees, is that  “moments of insight and genius come in the shower, on walks, doing hot yoga; when the mind is less focused and allowed to wander” (Hamblin, 2013); and if the mind is overstimulated, theoretically, its creative potential could be diminished. The key word, though, is “theoretically,” since evidence to the contrary abounds, namely because many highly creative individuals consume great quantities of coffee and, therefore, caffeine. For example, according to Brendan O’Hare in an article for The New Yorker (2015), the nineteenth-century French writer Honoré de Balzac supposedly consumed 50 cups of coffee per day; and according to Mason Currey, writing for Slate, L. Frank Baum, author ofThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz, would down four or five strong cups each morning at breakfast, and mathematician Paul Erdös fueled his long work hours with espresso shots and caffeine tablets. Other “coffeeholics” included Beethoven, Proust, Glenn Gould, Francis Bacon, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Gustav Mahler.

The Final Decision on Coffee

 So, what is the answer? Does coffee undermine your creativity or enhance it? Apparently the jury is still out, but until the final verdict is in, presuming it ever is, perhaps the best approach to take is the one that works for you. If consuming caffeine makes you feel more creative, then it more than likely does have a positive effect, but if the opposite is true, then maybe you should consider curbing your caffeine intake or switching to decaf.  You decide.

Sources:

Currey, M. (2013) Coffee!! Slate: Daily Rituals. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/features/2013/daily_rituals/coffee

Hamblin, J. (2013) Caffeine: For the More Creative Mind. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/06/caffeine-for-the-more-creative-mind/277069/

Hensrud, D. (2014) M.D.Is Coffee Good or Bad for Me? Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/coffee-and-health/faq-20058339

Konnikova, M. (2013) How Caffeine Can Cramp Creativity. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-caffeine-can-cramp-creativity

O’Hare, B. (2015) What I Assume Honoré de Balzac Thought after Drinking Each of His Fifty Daily Cups of Coffee. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts

Vanderbilt University Institute for Coffee Studies (2010) Is Coffee Good or Bad for Your Health? Retrieved from http://vanderbilt.edu/ics/coffee-news/