Wondering what to drink to stay awake during finals week?

Last semester, I volunteered to try energy drinks and write a column about it for The Reflector. As exam week has rolled around again, I thought I'd shamelessly promote myself ... I mean, provide advice and enlightenment to the masses. To save you the effort of clicking a link, I've reposted my column here (but you can also click here and go read it directly on The Reflector's site).

And, why yes, in case you're wondering, I'm currently drinking Mountain Dew Code Red (Diet) as I study for my Mythology and Writing for the Media exams.

Many energy drinks exist, but not all worth benefits
The Reflector, November 24, 2009

It's exam time, and that means several things: time to stop procrastinating, start looking at grades and get ready to become dependent upon caffeine and sugar-laced beverages instead of sleep.

To help readers in their studious endeavors, I volunteered to try multiple kinds of drinks and report on the taste, effectiveness and side effects.

However, I'm no expert in this, so I used Twitter to ask the Mississippi State community: "What kind of coffee concoctions, caffeinated sodas and energy drinks do you recommend?"

I received simple and complex responses, everything from "gas station black coffee" to "Well, you can't find this in Starkville anymore, but…"

I had every intention of trying all the beverages people suggested I try. I was fine until I started the energy drinks - I was willing to drink them, but apparently my stomach didn't like them.

So, here's my warning: If you haven't consumed energy drinks on a regular basis, please don't start during exam week. Your stomach may hate you, and being sick is the last thing you want to happen during exams.

Having said that, here's the list of drinks I tried, in order of least to most potent. This is how I thought the drinks affected me; it's not a scientifically-based list. See the graphic for those numbers:

1. Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino (bottled): Don't have time to wait for a drink or can't make up your mind? Grab a bottled frappuccino and go. It's really not any source for energy, but it tastes good and hey, drinking something cold helps keep you awake.

2. Diet Coke: Carbonation can help you wake up. For those of you who drink a cup of coffee or a coke a day, the minute amount of caffeine or sugar won't affect you - you might as well skip on down to No. 4 or 5.

3. Cap'n Crunch Latte from Strange Brew Coffeehouse: This wins the award for best coffee drink. There's a good balance of sweetness while maintaining a distinct coffee flavor. It didn't have much caffeine in it (I finished it off around 11 p.m. and was still able to sleep) and kept me in a much better mood as I studied for a test. Plus, Strange Brew gives you a freebie with your drink - a chocolate-covered espresso bean.

4. McDonald's Caramel Iced Coffee: If you like drinking syrup, this is your drink. I could hardly taste any coffee; in fact, it's kind of like melting a bunch of your grandmother's Werther's candy and pouring it over ice. If that's your thing, go for it. I had no sugar crash after drinking it; however, The Reflector assistant news editor April Windham reacted differently. In her words: "I got really hyper, then I got really tired, then I got hyper again! Then I jumped around and stood on top of a chair at the office, and then I got really tired and went to sleep." Yeah. Just know how you react to sugar before drinking this.

5. Mountain Dew Code Red: It's my favorite soft drink: gimme that high fructose corn syrup and that fake cherry flavor. Carbonation always wakes me up and for some reason, my body seems to think the drink's got a lot of caffeine in it. (It doesn't: a 12-ounce can contains 54 milligrams.)

6. Monster Energy Lo-Carb: I'll be honest: I couldn't even finish this one. I think I drank a third of it. I hated the taste and the aftertaste. Maybe the regular Monster is better, but I can't stomach that blue stuff again. I felt like it had the potential to give me lots of energy, but I couldn't drink it all to find out for sure. More power to all my friends who can drink several a day and function normally - more than one would kill me.

7. Starbucks Doubleshot Regular: What makes this tiny beverage so tasty? Espresso and cream. It's definitely strong, tastes like coffee and is slightly sweet. Don't shoot it, though; enjoy sipping on it (or chug half, wait a few minutes and chug the rest). There's also a light version of this drink with half the calories and a third of the total carbohydrates. Both have the same amount of caffeine (130 mg).

8. Chaser 5-hour Energy Shot: This is the only energy drink my mother and nursing student friends have recommended. Why? It doesn't have any sugar in it, is only 4 calories and contains B-vitamins, amino acids, nutrients and 138 milligrams of caffeine. Its Web site says the caffeine amount is equivalent to a normal cup of coffee, but in my opinion, these 5-hour shots work way better than coffee. Who knows, maybe Mom was right by making you take vitamins? Anyway, this is a drink you shoot and it comes in four flavors. There's also a caffeine-free version. Warning: Vitamin-laced shots like these have been known to cause upset stomachs, especially if you're not used to the ingredients. And don't drink more than two in 24 hours.

9. NOS Energy Drink: Good gracious. This was the biggest mistake I've made all semester. Kids, DON'T DRINK THIS. A 16-ounce can contains 54 grams of sugar and 260 milligrams of caffeine. It tasted great and smelled good. It didn't even seem to affect me right after I finished it; however, several hours later, I got a massive headache, my fingers started trembling and my stomach wanted to kill me. I did sleep that night, but I felt worse the next morning. My hands and legs shook the whole time I was in class and I felt nauseous. The massive headache came back and wouldn't go away. The label on the back of the can reads, "CAUTION: POWERFUL." If this is how NOS affects everyone, then that's the understatement of a lifetime.

Again, don't try energy drinks for the first time on exam week. Study hard, don't procrastinate, get some sleep, and remember: please drink responsibly.

Mini review

Scroll down to "April" in this post to see what this photo's all about. (And I'm sorry it's so tiny — Blogger keeps compressing it.)

I shouldn't be updating right now, but I just looked over my blog and realized I haven't posted since January. (YIKES! That's terrible, especially for a journalism student.) It is definitely an indication of how crazy this semester has been for me — I honestly did not anticipate this semester being crazy. I knew I would be busy looking for work and facing graduation, but since I only had four classes, I figured work would be my main time-consumer (and it certainly was, but there were lots of other things...). Here's a quick run-down of my semester, and I promise that more will be coming!

January:
-Started the last semester of my senior year at Mississippi State University with four classes: Elements of Persuasion, Writing for the Media (both of those are upper-level communication courses, which is all I need to graduate), Civil Liberties/Constitutional Law and Classical Mythology (which are two classes to keep me a full-time student). I quickly realize I'm not thrilled about my communication classes, and at least three classes are going to be much harder than I anticipated...so much for an easy last semester.
-Continued as Managing Editor at The Reflector. We had a huge staff changeover in December (our editor in chief resigned, sports and entertainment editors and several senior staff writers graduated). First month wasn't bad at all, once we all got used to new people in the office.
-Prepared to take my second LSAT.
-Turned in my paperwork to be considered for the RUF internship.

February:
-Already feeling a little senioritis...and realizing it's way too early to be feeling that.
-Took my second LSAT, which was much easier than the first LSAT in December. Unfortunately, we had a lot of problems with our proctor (including being shorted on time in one section and being interrupted numerous times). I figured this might affect my score, so I went ahead and filed an irregularity report...which meant that LSAC delayed my score for three extra weeks. Not exactly what I was hoping for since I was already entering the law school game a little late.
-Had my world absolutely ripped from under me when I lost my good friend and coworker Adam. (I plan to devote a whole blog entry to this topic sometime soon, but I need a while to write it so that I do it justice.) Without going into detail, it was an extremely traumatic situation, and I was the one who had to break the news to our newsroom crew. I never want to see the looks that I saw on their faces that day ever again. It was truly one of the darkest days of my life, and just one of those times where no matter how I cried out to the Lord, I didn't know how anything good would come about through this situation. Although I'm still struggling with all of us and still miss Adam terribly, I am thankful for how it brought our newsroom together. I knew I worked with talented, funny, smart people, but when all of this happened, it really bonded us all together and we started to get past the surface with each other. I have the utmost respect for our crew and I'm glad we were all in it together.

March:
-Got my LSAT score back and went up five points, despite the crazy testing circumstances! Finished off my law school applications to UT Knoxville, Ole Miss and University of Memphis.
-Went before the RUF South committee to be interviewed for an RUF intern position. I passed, and waited anxiously for my assignment...
-Had a GREAT roadtrip across my homestate (by myself!) during spring break. Those of you who know me even just a little bit know that I'm terrible with directions. Mom gave me a Garmin unit for Christmas, and that little thing has empowered me! Love it. I won't be scared of getting lost anymore. I visited my sister and Belmont RUF in Nashville for a day, drove to Chattanooga to see dear friends from church (got to see Bryan College and then spent the night at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia), drove to Knoxville to visit the law school and hang out with friends from church and high school for two days.
-Started dating a boy...and yep, that's all I'm telling you for right now. :)
-Heard back from RUF — my internship assignment is MTSU! I don't think I could have been more excited. I wanted to go back to my home state and be close to Nashville, but I never dreamed they would actually place me there.

April:
-School is really in full swing and crazy. Oh boy.
-We had TWO apartment fires in a span of about two weeks, including one at my complex! My building wasn't affected (although it still smells like smoke), but several of my friends lost everything they owned. I just so happened to be on my way to church when I saw a cloud of smoke — like I told another newspaper editor, "I turned right back around, put my Bible down and grabbed my camera." You can read my fire story here and see the Facebook album of fire photos here. What a crazy day. I am so thankful that the Lord spared every life in those two buildings that day!
-I finished my job as Managing Editor at The Reflector. It's been a good four years there, but I am ready for a break from the newsroom. I've been in and out helping the new staff, and I've stayed on as a writer and spot photographer, but no more eidtor position. :)
-I've started raising support for my RUF internship! Be expecting to see a lot more posts about that very soon.
-School's killing me. I'm having a hard time focusing (two papers, one presentation, some reading, four exams and one honors thesis project away from graduating) — I graduate in 9 days! Please pray for perseverance.