Parenting Daily

Over the last five years, energy drinks have grown very popular—especially among teens and young adults. The energy allegedly comes from a variety of ingredients—caffeine or similar derivatives, the calories from sugar (obviously, this doesn’t apply to the sugar-free varieties), ginkgo biloba, ginseng, guarana, Vitamin B, and many other exotic sounding things. Whether they actually produce the energy they claim or not is debatable—some studies say they do, others say they do not. Either way, teens are consuming them in mass quantities.

The idea of drinking different kinds of soft drinks with lots of caffeine is not new—I remember when I was growing up, a soft drink called “Jolt” (click here for more on Jolt Cola) was all the rage because it advertised that it had twice the caffeine of other soft drinks. The one time I dared to try it, when I was about 13 years old, I could barely stomach the awful-tasting concoction. Similarly, we’ve probably all known people who seem to ingest mass quantities of one type or another of Mountain Dew. Red Bull is another energy drink, the one that seems to have spurred the recent boom in energy drink creation. The popularity of Red Bull is probably due in part to the extensive marketing campaign aimed at young adults who want to drink alcohol and prolong the party by not getting tired too quickly.

One reason these energy drinks (click here for general info on energy drinks) are so popular with teens is because many teens do not get enough sleep. Most teens need 8-10 hours of sleep but they don’t get it because their circadian rhythms (what helps us get sleepy at night and feel more awake in daylight) are a little off. Teen’s nighttime sleepiness doesn’t usually take effect until 11pm-1am. But most schools start between 7:30-8:30am, which leaves most teens getting at least a couple hours less sleep than they need. Add energy drinks to their growing sleep debt and a damaging cycle of hyper alertness and crashing is put into motion (click here for a Fox News report on this cycle). Additional information on helping your teen get more sleep can be found here.

Another reason energy drinks appeal to teenagers is because of intentional marketing to draw teens in. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that the makers of energy drinks are running a business. Their business is to get people to buy their products. The energy drink companies are doing a great job of it. I harbor no ill-will towards them. That’s why it is our job, as parents of teens, to regulate how much of the drinks they imbibe. Just because a drink promises to help you stay up and play video games all night or your favorite celebrities are seen with the drinks, doesn’t mean teens have to drink them all the time. As with most things in life, moderation is key! Nutritional information on many energy drinks can be found here.

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