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PHIL NOBLE / Reuters
Coffee makes you hear voices that aren't there. Wait, who said that?!
If you're hearing voices in your head, you may want to cut back on the caffeine. A recent Australian study showed a link between heavy coffee consumption, stress -- and auditory hallucinations.
Here's what happened: The volunteers listened to white noise played through a computer's headphones for three minutes. Every time they heard even a snippet of Bing Crosby's White Christmas, they were told to press a hand tally counter. (They weren't aware of the real point of the study -- they were told it was about auditory perception.)
The song was never played. But the participants who said they were very stressed, and very caffeinated -- those who regularly drank five or more cups per day, at 200 milligrams of caffeine each -- were more likely to imagine they'd heard it.
"We believe that high stress, in addition to taking high levels of caffeine, makes people yet more stressed and thus makes them more likely to 'overreact' to the environment -- i.e., to hear things that just aren’t there," explains Simon Crowe, the lead author of the study and a neuroscientist at Australia's La Trobe University, located in Bundoora, Victoria. The report was published in the April issue of the journal Personality and Individual Differences
It's worth noting here that there are some limitations to the study: The levels of stress and caffeine consumption were both self-reported by the 92 volunteers who participated in the experiment. And what if, somehow, the caffeine-stressball combo made participants more eager to try to please the researchers -- yes, of course we heard the song! It's lovely, isn't it?!
Then again, maybe that's just what the voices in my head are telling me.
How much caffeine do you consume each day?
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Of course they "heard" Bing Crosby after the suggestion was planted in their head. I can "hear" him singing that now, too, because I've heard the song before and can remember it. The suggestion was planted in their minds and because they thought they were supposed to hear it some of them did. It would be interesting to find out if those who did not hear the song had ever heard the song in their lives. This study is very flawed.
Yeah, also a good point.
jfire,
My thought exactly. As a tinnitus sufferer, I can tell you the noise is always there, as noise (combination of hissing and high-pitched ringing). But put me in a booth with more noise, and I'll probably eventually hear what you want me to hear. I sleep with a tv playing, usually a boring or obnoxious program, to provide a focused background noise to let me nod off. Radio is too erractic.
I hear Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas" all the time. I thought everyone did. You mean that's not normal?
GET OUT OF MY HEAD BING CROSBY! GET OUT!! GET OUT!!!
Still, both the non-caffeinated and caffeinated groups were given the same suggestion. Perhaps the most heavily caffeinated are also lacking sleep. Maybe caffeine(or just being in a high stress or jacked up metabolic state) makes you more prone to suggestion. I'd like to see this in a controlled lab environment rather than self reported. It's interesting.
Yeah the study a is load of BS, we drink copious amounts of coffee and don't hear voices in our headses, precious. Gollum! Gollum!
I disagree. What you are saying is that you tell someone to listen for something, they will hear it no matter what. That's simply not true.
This study is a bad case of priming.
I think the real problem with this isn't the experiment itself, but the interpretation. There's not causality shown -- simply people who report more stress and drink more coffee are more likely to experience the auditory illusion. That's a long way from saying that caffeine causes any effect. For example, people who sleep poorly feel more stressed, and probably drink more coffee -- it wouldn't be surprising at all if reduced sleep increases the illusion.
They didn't really hear Bing singing. They were just tired, stressed, buzzed with caffeine and were tired of playing along with their crappy experiment. They would have admitted to talking with God if that put an end to it.
Good I get sick of listening to myself
lol...love your name, lynnybug!
As for the experiment, I'm stressed, overcaffeinated, tired, and I must confess I do hear songs in my head all the time. For the past 2 days, it's been an old No Doubt song, but I expect for the next 2 days it will be Bing.
This a prime example of why the Medical Field is called "ART" and not Science.
The Psychiatric component is the worst.
I bet you aren't thinking of an elephant. I bet you aren't thinking of an elephant. I bet you aren't thinking of an elephant.
Think of an animal....
Are you thinking of an elephant?
Worship me because I'm psychic.
OH MY GOD!!! Richard-1971294, I AM thinking of an elephant! You really are psychic! I know I am not worthy! I am dropping to my knees right now to worship you, but you already knew that, didn't you?
Did any of you actually read the content before you hit the instant-cynic button on your keyboard? Yes, everyone was given the power of suggestion routine, the point is, highly caffeinated folks responded more than those not. Who knows if that really points the claim they are making (someone else commented on lack of sleep, for instance), but if the study is dubious, it is not through their implying anything. They had to be given an implication in the first place, the point of the study was to see who was more likely to run with the implication. Dubious study, but dubious remarks here.
I've heard the song before, but I can't hear it playing in my head.
if you heard the song out loud, and in your head...you could tell the difference, right?
Jessica,
Depends on the context of your memory. Somethings you simply remember, others are colored with tone, color, images...
No Bill. My memories may be colored with sensory data. I know what a noise sounds like for example. But I know the difference between remembering that noise and actually hearing it. I've had an auditory hallucination before and it actually sounds like the sound is happening in the room at that moment.
Actually, I can't always tell if the song I'm hearing is in my head or something the neighbors are playing too loud. The way I figure it out is if the song is repeated over and over, its in my head. If the song keeps changing, the neighbors need to turn their stereo down.
Josh,
That was my point. We all have two memory tracks: one of the events, the other of the context of some events color, tone, texture and emotion. An auditory hallucination is not the same as a memory, though. A memory is a mental recreation of an actual or perceived past event spurred by a suggestion. An hallucination is a creation of a new event. The mind recreates a plausible scenario, lake in the desert or ring doorbell, filling an emotional or mental need, but out of context.
The only voices I hear are laughs from the people who were paid to do these silly tests. Pretty soon Congress will pass a law where people will only be allowed one cup of coffee daily. For our own good of course.
Simon Crowe, the lead author of the study and a neuroscientist at Australia's La Trobe University, located in Bundoora, Victoria.
Not only does the study have nothing to do with government, it is outside the US and will have no effect on Congress.
They really can't do that because isn't it 5 cups of coffee per day that keeps prostate cancer at bay?---lmao
They really can't do that because isn't it 5 cups of coffee per day that keeps prostate cancer at bay?---lmao
When reading these posts I often hear the voices of those who wrote them. You wouldn't believe what most are really saying. The cursed vulgarities! The threats. The pure goddamn meanness expressed. It's blood curdling! The Australian experimentologists need to try dissecting a khoala, or attempt to find a sure fire way one can actually see one's own back with one's own eyes. That would be worth reading. Damn I read the article! What a damn fool I am!
LogicMan's: Just because the study was done in another country, doesn't mean that people in this country won't use it to further their own agendas. Given the fact that our government loves to control what we do, it's entirely possible for them to use this in an attempt to regulate our coffee consumption. I think you need to re-study logic.
I think it's called Neuro Linguistic Programming.
What do you "envision" when I say "lions and tigers and bears, oh my"?
Now, if the study revealed that coffee induced hallucinations in which people "heard visions and saw voices", I would conclude caffeine causes "dyslexic schizophrenia".
P.S. I had an olfactory hallucination because I 'smelled coffee' when I first read the article.p>
You may have 'pictured' Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. You may have 'heard' their voices singing the lyric on the 'yellow brick road'. It may have induced a pleasant emotive response associated with your childhood when you first saw the movie.
Or, it may have evoked a fear response associated to seeing and hearing the 'wicked witch' and 'flying monkeys'.
At any rate..... "it was just my imagination, running away from me..."
; - ]
Bah, I heard voices long before I started drinking coffee.
I hear voices that order me to drink coffee.
I'm enjoying me a fine cup of coffee right now, the voices in my head tells me to finish it and get another.
I hear voices after just one cup of coffee. That's when my brain actually wakes up. The voices are people talking to me.
There was a study a year or so ago which found that drinking coffee makes people more susceptible to suggestion.
This study had a terrible design. Check here or google "Coffee Open Minded"
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9280-drinking-coffee-makes-you-more-openminded.html
When I lived in the SF Bay area my usual was 18-20 undiluted shots of full caffeine espresso a day, and my hands didn't shake and my blood pressure ran 80/50 all the time.
Tinnitus (riniging of the ears) is possibly caused by coffee, stress, sugar, cheese and head injuries. Possible remedies include zinc, eating greens vegtables and not being stressed. 20 percent of the population have some sort of tinnitus. There is no known cure.
Also can be caused by working in a loud environment, like a ketal staping plant for nearly 10 years. Point really is, NO ONE KNOWS what causes it. Best reported treatment is a $40+/month OTC with about a reported 20-30% success rate. The other solutions are less effective or not available.
I'm actually 5 days into coffee detox... let me tell you it is the most aweful feeling in the world... my coffee woes came to an end when I stated having panic attacks. Took me a while to put two a two together, but once I did, I realized I had to quit. Of course quitting can take up to 2 months and the symptoms aren't just terrible headaches, which is what I had thought all along. Nope, symptoms for me include nausea, headaches, terrible anxieties (constant), heavy arms and legs, extrememly tired, light headedness, and on and on. I've never heard voices though...
That's wild that you had such extreme physical reactions to the coffee withdrawal.
Once I had a really boring office job and I used to frequently grab a cup of coffee just to get away from my desk. One day I realised that I was drinking 8 cups of coffee a day. I decided that might not be good for me so I quit drinking coffee cold turkey.
It took me three days to get the coffee out of my system I reckon because for those three days I was constantly sleepy. Bu sleepy I mean I could have laid down pretty much anywhere and gone to sleep. I toughed out the sleepiness and then went back to drinking coffee again but no more than 2 or 3 cups a day.
Try some "Yerba Mate" to relieve your Coffee withdrawal symptoms! Do a search for this beverage and read about it.
Note that if the withdrawal symptoms are caused by addiction to the caffeine in the coffee, that yerba maté also contains caffeine as does black and green tea.
My not having coffee gives others panic attacks. Seriously. One time a Mennonite doctor told me that he had never known anyone who drank as much coffee as I do, and that he would like to see me before coffee. My then 10 year old immediately piped up and said, "No, you wouldn't! Trust me on this, you wouldn't, it's not pretty!"
The voices in my head are telling me to get another cup of coffee.
Wow. I feel better now.
caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant, therefore, it's possible that "hearing" these voices/songs was not a hallucination but an exacerbation of perception. Now, that you might think, is the same thing. But, in fact, it isn't at all.
What a bunch of nonsense...I have another pot of coffee waiting for me. Of course they're going to hear Bing Crosby if its being suggested or being played to them, it doesn't show any proof whatsoever that it was hallucinated.
I'm surprised they didn't hear David Bowie's "Under Pressure" in the white noise.
Every year researchers come out with studies that contradict the findings of previous studies. In the scramble to gain funding for their research, the whole credibility of the science involved comes into question. I for one have decided to rely on my own common sense when it comes to deciding what is healthy or not. I have come to believe the scientific community is running a big scam on the public. Kind of on the lines of the boy who cried wolf story.
Funny...but after a few cups, I usually hear "White Light/White Heat" by the Velvet Underground. Jeez...anyone hearing Bing Crosby has serious issues that need to be addressed NOW :)
LMAO. This is so funny it's ludicrous. Suggest to someone that you are playing music and they think they hear it. DUH. OF COURSE.
Honey, get the door.
No one is there dear. It's just your coffee knocking.
Wow this explains a lot for me! No wonder my wife always gives me plenty of coffee before asking for money!
BALONEY! an anti migraine headache pill gives you auditory sounds...and calling them hallucinations is a bit much...if someone is in your head telling you to steal or worse THAT is a hallucination. Hearing music is NOT...that can even happen when you do NOT drink coffee and now that the article said the Bing Crosby song White Christmas I can hear it in my head.
These studies STINK. Who finances them...in this one's case maybe it's an herbal tea company who finances it. ALWAYS know who finances it. Often it is a competitor ... it's ALL about bucks ALWAYS!
Agreed. They placed the thought in their head in the first place. If you watch a documentary on turrets syndrome, you'll start to twitch a bit. If someone yawns, you'll eventually yawn. When I'm waiting for a phone call...every time I go into the back bedroom I could swear I heard the phone ring...nope.
How much did this study cost?...lol.
Besides, it's not about coffee as the title says...it's about caffeine....which is in a lot of things including drinks, food, ice cream, candy & medicine.
Definitely a flawed experiment - the suggestion of hearing Der Bingle was implanted. Why not just put the over-caffeinated people in a sound proof room for a few hours and ask them what they hear? Mostly they're going to hear themselves thinking, "Gee, I should could use a cup of coffee right now!" Stupid study, nonsense conclusion.
.
Ok, I'll be the first to admit it happens to me. I can hear music or very far away voices. It sounds like someone left a radio on very low in another room. When I'm in bed with the ceiling fan on, it sounds like a baseball game being announced. Very low, very far away, you can't make out actual words, and the music sounds like it's from a Victrola. It's annoying, and now that I think about it, it only happens when I have had caffeine, which I am very sensitive to.
Everybody remembers correlation =!= causation right? This article is even worded better than most with "suggest", "showed a link", yet when I read the comments people still seem to assume that the study is definitively saying without-a-doubt that caffiene causes hallucinations...