If your teenager reaches for an energy drink before school, grabs coffee with friends on weekends, or games late into the night with something fizzy nearby, they are far from alone. Nearly one in four American teenagers consume caffeine most or all days of the week, yet many do not know how much is too much.
“The general guideline is not to have caffeine when you are under 18,” says Jennifer Jiyun Park, PhD, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. “Energy drinks, which pack loads of caffeine, should be completely avoided before adulthood.”
Those guidelines are widely unknown and ignored. The FDA cites 400 milligrams a day as the amount most healthy adults can consume with minimal side effects. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns that too much caffeine in teens can cause increased heart rate, palpitations, high blood pressure, digestive problems, and dehydration. “Excess caffeine can also result in insomnia, restlessness, anxiety, and a delay in falling asleep,” says Sabhyata Agrawal, MD, a Yale Medicine pulmonologist and assistant professor of pulmonology, allergy, immunology, and sleep medicine at Yale School of Medicine.
Problematic caffeine consumption is more common and more hidden than most parents realize, Dr. Agrawal says. She sees roughly one teen a day with caffeine-linked sleep complaints but says most aren’t forthcoming about how much they’re consuming. “It’s a growing problem, but under-recognized,” she says, partly because caffeine use is so normalized among adults that it doesn’t register as a red flag.
Many parents don’t know where to draw boundaries with their teen’s caffeine use, let alone the risks it carries. “Parents and educators should be aware of what these products look like and how they are used,” says Grace Kong, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine.
