30 replies to this topic

[Will]

So does this 5 Hr Energy rubbish work?

In case you haven't seen their annoying adverts:



If it does work I'm in for a long night of CALCULUS! If not I'll crash soon and fall asleep.

Discuss lame energy drinks, their effectiveness and other ways you give yourself that extra boost.

[Jewbert]

Energy beverages don't seem to have any effect on me. I got addicted to caffeine last year and after a while it had -no- affect on me at all. The only thing it seems to do to me now (in coffee) is make me pee a lot.

I drank some morning spark in a bottle of water not too long ago and I couldn't get to sleep. But I haven't tried this stuff you've posted. I'm sure it "gives you energy" for a while then makes you feel like total shit after your boost. Then you crash.

[Hydrogen]

All these energy drinks are great and all, but at the end of the day you have to realize that they are just temporary solutions to the real problem at hand. I speak firstly to myself before anyone else when I say this but you know that for mostly any thing that comes from school, there is ample time given to do the assignment. The reason we feel that we don't have time to do it though is because of our own time management. Were we to manage our time properly, we would never be late on assignments, have to stay up late studying for exams or feel a minute of stress (well...maybe not on this one) during the school year. The larger problem at hand here is that we need better time management. I know for sure that I do.

Another thing about energy is that energy drinks usually use quick shots of caffeine or some other related energy drug. The thing about this is that if you do it too much then it's not so good for you as I'm sure you probably know already. If you want real energy, make sure to stock up on fruits and vegetables, start your day on time with a complete breakfast and go to sleep on time. Take plenty of breaks during work and make sure to work in a well lit area which is in the path of constantly flowing fresh air.

That's my advice at least.

Also, here's a post a friend made on how important sleep is: http://www.oldgoodies.net/sleep-do-it

[Will]

All these energy drinks are great and all, but at the end of the day you have to realize that they are just temporary solutions to the real problem at hand. I speak firstly to myself before anyone else when I say this but you know that for mostly any thing that comes from school, there is ample time given to do the assignment. The reason we feel that we don't have time to do it though is because of our own time management. Were we to manage our time properly, we would never be late on assignments, have to stay up late studying for exams or feel a minute of stress (well...maybe not on this one) during the school year. The larger problem at hand here is that we need better time management. I know for sure that I do.

Another thing about energy is that energy drinks usually use quick shots of caffeine or some other related energy drug. The thing about this is that if you do it too much then it's not so good for you as I'm sure you probably know already. If you want real energy, make sure to stock up on fruits and vegetables, start your day on time with a complete breakfast and go to sleep on time. Take plenty of breaks during work and make sure to work in a well lit area which is in the path of constantly flowing fresh air.

That's my advice at least.

Also, here's a post a friend made on how important sleep is: http://www.oldgoodies.net/sleep-do-it

Good advice; however, I think for a lot of people it isn't just a time-management problem it's literally not having enough time.

For example: I go to school (dur), I'm on the tennis team (2 hour practices a day starting this week) and on top of that I work almost every night of the week. When I get home on full days like that it's around 9. According to my Psych class I should be getting at least 9 hours of sleep. To do that I would need to go to bed...about an hour before I get home. If I settled for 8 hours of sleep I could go to bed right when I got home but, as anyone in highschool will testify, there's a lot of work assigned. I can't shirk off the work for various reasons (getting into college, parents, illusions of responsibility etc) so I'm stuck with about two hours (give or take) of homework and studying a night. Assuming I book it home and crank out that two hours of schoolwork I can be in bed by 11ish. That's giving me 6.5 hours of sleep. Now take into account the fact that I own a Wii and go on forums *cough* codex *cough* and I'm not getting to bed until midnight or later. That means I'm getting >5.5 hours of sleep a night.

As far as diet goes I think mine is decent. I get up pretty early (5-5:30) and make breakfast for me and my dad: eggs, bacon and potatoes normally. I eat kinda shitty for lunch, normally some fast food or sandwich place and my dinner is usually fairly healthy. My biggest problem, which you alluded to, is that I don't eat enough vegetables. Aside from potatoes I really don't enjoy eating veggies and for me it's much more convenient to grab an apple than to have a salad.

As far as I can tell, the thing that kills me in terms of energy is when I get to sleep; a problem which I'm probably exacerbating by using energy shots to stay up late and do my schoolwork. It's a vicious cycle.

Very interesting article Hydro. Your friend seems pretty brainy!

Oh and energy update: definitely seems to be working. I'm ripping through this math work!

Edit: Just for clarification, not all my days are as packed as my example as I don't work everyday. Although my boss seems to be heading towards that...

Edited by Will, 02 April 2008 - 08:32 PM.

[Selphie]

The amount of product you get in that miniscule excuse for a bottle seems too ridiculously small to actually do anything...

[Evan]

Energy drinks dont really effect me. I do drink monster on occasion...cause it does taste good. I have one of those HUGE ones in my fridge. Its for teh weekend

[Melchoire]

My friend says it works really well. I chugged one and it tasted like cough medicine and I didn't feel anything either. So yes it does work but don't be taken in by the placebo effect.

[Hydrogen]

I'm more of a believer of the natural route. I don't even take tylenol when my head hurts if I don't absolutely have to since it's just one more extra pill that goes into my body.

[Melchoire]

I'm more of a believer of the natural route. I don't even take tylenol when my head hurts if I don't absolutely have to since it's just one more extra pill that goes into my body.

The way I see, everything is natural.

[Hydrogen]

The way I see, everything is natural.

WTF, everything is not natural

[Fatal]

The amount of product you get in that miniscule excuse for a bottle seems too ridiculously small to actually do anything...

Its pretty much just high dose vitamin B with some caffeine. Its enough to do something. I take one 5 hour energy per day, have a large amount in my cupboard, and like Hydro said, its a temp. solution to a problem, and I agree, but its hard for some to fix the problem.

I'm more of a believer of the natural route. I don't even take tylenol when my head hurts if I don't absolutely have to since it's just one more extra pill that goes into my body.

Take magnesium instead, pretty effective against migraines. Also tylenol is bad stuff, I dont know why anyone still takes it when there is ibuprofen/aspirin.

Government here just recently made these herbal party pills a class C drug, but they were really effective in keeping you awake and whatnot. Kinda sad since they've never been found to have directly harmed anyone here, and there were some really strict rules on just who could buy them. I can't say I tried them, but they seemed reasonably harmless compared to alternatives.

What kind of herb is it?

Edited by Fatal, 02 April 2008 - 11:28 PM.

[phalkon]

yeah, 5hr Energy is pretty good. we used it on our last road trip. (started it at midnight... ended it around 2pm the next day)

no crash, although it doesn't work as strongly as it could on me, and that's solely because my adhd medication is an amphetamine, so stimulant + stimulant... yeah. the more i take, usually the calmer i get (i'm awake... just not hyper)

[pyke]

WTF, everything is not natural

Aspirin is pretty close

Just look at it as mildly synthesized salic cylic acid (I believe), that won't give you terrible stomach cramps XD

[adonis]

I drink "Rip-it" an energy drink probally around oh 8 servings a day. I work third shift and when I started out at one every few nights it worked great. now bleh no more than a soda but per volume they are cheaper and have an excessive ammount of vitamins for most people, but help supplement my unusual lifesytle

[Sweeney]

WTF, everything is not natural

It is if you take the view that we ourselves are products of nature, and therefore everything we produce is an indirect product of nature, thereby making everything we produce "natural".

[Kail]

PowerThirst FTW!

No seriously tho i drink alot of caffine drinks when im stuck into a good game so i can stay up later playing it

[Tailwind]

Yuck. I'd stay away from energy drinks if I were you guys. My mom messed herself up really bad by drinking them when he was doing graveyard shift as the supermarket.

I get all my energy from eating fruits and veggies plus drinking an assload of water. Constantly hyper and almost never feel tried unless I've been up for over 16 hours. o.o

[sonic]

In Iraq we had our own special Energy Drink.

It's called Fire Fight.

Lets say your sitting out on patrol and dozing off. If your battle buddy is nice he wont wake you up. Otherwise, the only thing that can keep you awake is....Bullets and explosions! Suddenly you are awake. And there is no going back to sleep for awhile. It's like a second wind.

[Highly-Advanced-Cube]

It is said that if u sleep before 24:00 every hour that you sleep is counted twice as much for example you need 12 hours of sleep.

you sleep at 20:00 thats 4 hours before 24:00 thus 8 hours (with this theory) and than at 04:00 you would have enough sleep.

it's just a theory but as a matter of fact i actually believe it

Edited by cube, 03 April 2008 - 09:43 AM.

[Sweeney]

It is said that if u sleep before 24:00 every hour that you sleep is counted twice as much for example you need 12 hours of sleep.

you sleep at 20:00 thats 4 hours before 24:00 thus 8 hours (with this theory) and than at 04:00 you would have enough sleep.

it's just a theory but as a matter of fact i actually believe it

Well, it's rubbish.
Besides which, the average adult only needs around 7-8 hours of sleep.

[Tailwind]

Well, it's rubbish.
Besides which, the average adult only needs around 7-8 hours of sleep.

I guess I'm out then, since I usually sleep for 12 hours a pop.

Home schooling kind of does that, and I have nothing else to do with my time other than playing games or sleeping..so..

[Jewbert]

I drink "Rip-it" an energy drink probally around oh 8 servings a day. I work third shift and when I started out at one every few nights it worked great. now bleh no more than a soda but per volume they are cheaper and have an excessive ammount of vitamins for most people, but help supplement my unusual lifesytle

When the Mart of Wal had those for like, 50 cents for the 4 packs, me and Chris went and bought almost every pack.
O.O

Didn't take long to get through them, either. Hahah.

[Sweeney]

I guess I'm out then, since I usually sleep for 12 hours a pop.

Home schooling kind of does that, and I have nothing else to do with my time other than playing games or sleeping..so..

Imho, sleeping 12 hours a day is probably far too much
Sleeping much longer than necessary will make you more tired when you wake up.

But if it works for you

[Fatal]

Imho, sleeping 12 hours a day is probably far too much
Sleeping much longer than necessary will make you more tired when you wake up.

But if it works for you

I get tired as fuck usually if I dont have around 12 hours, on 6 hours Im pretty hyper for a while, then get dead tired mid-day, and 7 hours I seem to always be tired, 8-10 hours is pretty average, not hyper, but awake, 12 hours Im pretty hyper + can stay awake a long time.

Yes its a little weird