Your shaking hands pick up a heavy backpack as thoughts tumble through your head one after another. Stress builds as does the exhaustion from another night of doing assignment after assignment. You realize that without caffeine, there’s no way you can get through another day without falling asleep.

Many students walk around the high school with energy drinks like Red bull or Celsius in their hands. Although many healthcare trends and professionals, including the school nurse, say that these drinks aren’t good for kids to drink, many disagree because of their workload and how exhausted they are.

“Shaky,” “jittery,” and “nervous” are descriptions of how some students feel post-energy drink. Others say “energized,” “awake,” and “vitalized.”

A survey was sent out to Milton High School English classes, making up 10% of the student population. While 38.4% of respondents say that they do drink highly caffeinated energy drinks, 61.6% say that they prefer a different source of caffeine, or none at all; mostly because energy drinks make them anxious.

Nurse Aikey said, “I see students that will come in and even after drinking just coffee they’re super anxious and have panic attacks because they have underlying anxiety. Adding caffeine on top of it increases their heart rate, which increases their blood pressure. So, caffeine is not only affecting them physically with jitters, but it’s also affecting them mentally.”

Aikey also added that when teens drink too much caffeine, it could affect their ability to focus on tests, homework, and sports. She also notes that drinks such as Celsius and Red bull aren’t recommended for children under 18.

Red Bull only has about 80 milligrams of caffeine per 8.4 fluid ounce can, similar to a cup of coffee. It is recommended that people under 18 only have around 100 milligrams of caffeine a day. A Red Bull spokesperson said, “It’s important to note overall, children should consume less caffeine than adults due to their lower body weight.”

Celsius, however, contains 200 milligrams of caffeine per can, which is twice the amount recommended for

children. To this Celsius said, “Celsius is not recommended for those under the age of 18 because of the caffeine content.”

After being asked if it was okay for students to drink this much caffeine daily, Aikey commented, “No your bodies are still developing at your age, so I think it is really important that you not add any outside substances in, you know caffeine is a drug, so caffeine, drugs, alcohol.”

Though these energy drinks may not be the optimal drink for high schooler’s health, many students rely on them. Of those who said they drink energy drinks, 14% said they depend on them to feel awake. Junior Gisele Dimanche said, “I drink Celsius a lot, sometimes one or two a day. When I drink them when I’m in the middle of doing something I feel super on task and all over the place and once that’s died down it’s back to normal.”

In addition to schoolwork, high schoolers are encouraged to do clubs, sports, jobs, and driving lessons, and upperclassmen need to work on applications and APs.

Junior Avery Roth pointed out how stressful it is to keep up the demanding workload of Junior year. After being asked how they felt after having an energy drink, Roth said, “A little bit jittery but awake.”

Similarly, senior Isabel Appleman said, “They [energy drinks] definitely wake me up and I feel like I need them to go and have a successful day at school.”

So, if teenagers shouldn’t consume energy drinks, how can they have enough energy to perform well in school?

If you think you need a boost, try to stick to drinks under 100 milligrams of caffeine. This could include coffee (around 90 mg per cup), Monster Energy (80 mg per can), or Red bull (89 mg per can). In addition, make sure to always read the can to check the caffeine content and consider how you’ll feel before drinking the beverage.