Hydrogen Water vs Coffee: Better Sleep Deprivation Relief Without Jitters

Drinking hydrogen-rich water (HRW) might be as effective as caffeine in temporarily making sleep-deprived young adults feel more alert, without any side effects.

Hydrogen-rich water increased alertness in sleep-deprived people by a similar amount as caffeine, with no reported side effects compared to caffeine's negative effects on attention.

In this small study, researchers gave 23 sleep-deprived young adults either hydrogen-rich water or caffeine and measured how alert they felt and how well they performed on attention tests. Both hydrogen-rich water and caffeine increased alertness similarly (by about 1.6–1.7 points on a rating scale). Caffeine caused some drops in attention and focus in follow-up tests, while hydrogen-rich water caused only a small change in one attention measure. Neither treatment was clearly better than the other overall.

This is a very small pilot study (23 people, 24-hour sleep deprivation only), so the results are preliminary. While hydrogen-rich water showed promise as a caffeine alternative with fewer side effects, much larger and longer studies are needed before drawing firm conclusions about its real-world usefulness for alertness.

Molecular hydrogen (H2) has been suggested as an agent capable of exerting neuromodulating effects; yet, its potential to affect brain circuits linked to alertness remains poorly examined. In this randomized controlled cross-over pilot trial, we compared acute effects of single-dose hydrogen-rich…

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