Can’t Stay Awake? Try These Caffeinated Products

Exhaustion is a gamer’s worst enemy. You know it, I know it, which is why there are so many products loaded with caffeine and sugar to keep you awake and alert. Soda is cheap and good but sometimes, it isn’t enough for late night, long hour gaming. Luckily, there are caffeine-loaded alternatives in different forms to fuel gamers onward into the very early morning.

When duty calls and it’s late, you need drinks with the most caffeine and fastest kick. These drinks keep gamers awake all night into the wee hours of the morning (or even into the next afternoon, depending on the drink). If you like the taste of coffee, there’s Starbucks; however, if you like carbonated drinks, there’s Full Throlle, Bawls, Rockstar, Monster, Red Bull, Mana, etc. There are even energy drinks combined with coffee like Full Throttle Coffee and Starbucks Doubleshot Energy + Coffee.

These energy drinks contain a lot of sugar, caffeine, and other stimulants to keep you wired until your body just burns out. Depending on the individual, these drinks have varying effects. For some, the effects might last a whole day; others, a few hours. Some energy drinks even contain antioxidants, vitamins, and other “healthy ingredients,” but that only seems to be a tactic to downplay the negative effects such as high blood pressure, increased heart rate, and dehydration. Buyer beware: there are labels that warn not to consume more than two drinks a day, and the price at around $2 per can will hopefully be enough to limit your intake, anyway.

Canned energy drinks are expensive, so if you’re stingy yet you still need crazy energy boosts, try powdered energy drinks. There’s Power Edge, Morning Sparks, Energy Rush and many more. The price is anywhere from $0.21 to $0.50 per packet , which contains two servings. Economically, powdered drinks are the best bang for the buck, but it might be lacking in the taste department. However, since it’s powdered, you can tailor the concentration and flavor to your liking.

Moving away from beverages, there are also solid foods that have the same effect as these energy drinks. That way, you don’t have to get up to pee every ten minutes; you can just keep on gaming. There’s caffeinated gum, lollipops, pills, cereals, candy bars and almost anything else you can think of! As if candy isn’t already loaded enough with sugar, now they add caffeine. Perfect for the gamer in need.

These are pretty much new school commodities. Remember the time when you drank cans upon cans of soda while eating candy? Now, I suppose the mantra is “less is more” - after all, why drink 2 or 3 cups of coffee when you can just go with one energy drink? But in the end, what it comes down to is this: drink what you need to keep you gaming for as long as humanly possible. Without overloading your system, of course.