Too Much Coffee Linked to Hallucinations

A UK study finds that people who drink seven or more cups of instant coffee a day are three times more likely to experience hallucinations than people who drank just one cup.
A Durham University team questioned 200 students about their caffeine intake, the journal Personality and Individual Differences reported.

However, academics say the findings do not prove a "causal link".

They also stress that experiencing hallucinations is not a definite sign of mental illness and that about 3% of people regularly hear voices.

"This is the first step toward looking at the wider factors associated with hallucinations," said psychology PhD student Simon Jones, who led the study.

Could it be that anyone who drinks seven cups of instant coffee is already a little crazy? If you like coffee that much, invest in a real brewing machine! Link -Thanks, Jee!

From personal experience, I can support Miss C's inductive conclusion. Someone who drinks instant coffee is already a little nuts. Someone who voluntarily drinks seven cups of it per day needs therapy if not an intervention.
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I moved to the UK from Seattle over three years ago, and I'm still shocked and appalled at how the people here think instant coffee is real coffee. It's disturbing.
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To be fair, I guess tea is the normal drink in Britain. I couldn't get brewed coffee in China, either -I was lucky to get instant. But I hear the Middle East has coffee that will blow your socks off!
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So THAT'S why I keep hearing that nagging voice in my head telling me to pick up my socks and lower the toilet seat. And here I was thinking it was the missus. Oh, wait, here it is again, gotta go...
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People that take more stimulants hallucinate more than others? I would have never guessed : P

I have take a lot of caffeine on a couple of occasions via "energy" drinks when pulling all-nighters. I started seeing things in my peripheral vision
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Now don't be ragging on instant coffee... The people at work brew the coffee way too light (if I want tea, I'll make a cup of tea!), so I started keeping a canister of Taster's Choice Gourmet Roast in my desk; it's a darker blend, and I can mix it as strong as I like. It's actually got a decent flavor to it, far, far better than the standard Folgers or Sanka or store-brand instant most people are familiar with. A canister costs about $8, but it lasts me a couple of months at work, so it's money well spent. I liked it so well that I use it at home too, only brewing coffee when there's more than just me drinking it. Try some, you just might like it.

There are other alternatives to dry instant as well; one I've tried is Java Juice; it's a liquid extract you mix with water. Flavor is good, but the cost is a bit high; about $1 a packet, and one packet doesn't make a cup as strong as I'd like.

And I should also add that 2 cups (actually, good-size mugs) is my max for a day. No pink elephants for me, thanks.
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It's known that too much caffeine can cause hallucinations. It's called caffeine intoxication.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine#Caffeine_intoxication
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Alana, I hear ya. I converted my husband to real coffee as opposed to instant when I moved to the UK because I didn't even want to get out of bed for a cup of glorified mud.

vertol is right. This isn't exactly news. Too much coffee can really mess with a person.
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In Japan many working men and women drink coffee after meal and i think not many of them know if it has some drawbacks. If hallucination is the product of caffeine intoxication, i worry that many Japanese will be hallucinated after meal. I read a health book here that drinking too much coffee has high correlation with poor blood circulation and in a women magazine & health book it is correlated with the amount of cellulite. Whether or not coffee is the direct cause of these problems, too much of something is definitely not good.
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