Safe with Starbucks.
A cuppa Joe really can save your life. Researchers examined records of long-distance drivers and found that people who drank a daily dose of caffeine were 63 percent less likely to crash their vehicles than non-caffeine consumers, finds a new study in the British Medical Journal.
There’s plenty of research that connects caffeine to making fewer errors on the job and on the road, says study author Lisa Sherwood, a research scholar at The Georgia Institute in Australia. Drowsy drivers are more likely to get in accidents, which is why Sherwood recommends a daily Dunkin’ run to keep you alert.
And it only takes about 10 minutes for your body to feel caffeine’s effects, says Laura Klein, Ph.D, an associate professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State University. Need a morning boost before your long commute? Grab an 8-ounce cup of coffee, which comes packed with at least 95 milligrams of caffeine, according to the Mayo Clinic. (Or take a Lipton’s for the road—drivers who drank tea and energy drinks also lowered their crash risk in the BMJ study.)
Additional reporting by Kevin Cirilli
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