Does Coffee Actually Boost Creativity? What Science Says About Your Daily Espresso Habit
Spoiler: if you need constant brainstorming, coffee shouldn’t be your closest ally.
Despite still causing polarising opinions about its efficacy, coffee remains one of the top beverages on par with tea, sometimes even winning this contest when it comes to coffee’s ability to boost your energy.
At some point, even scientists started wondering whether caffeine can in fact have a positive impact on creative processes occurring in people’s heads, but the result of these studies might not be so encouraging.
Coffee Boosts Your Energy, but Not Creativity
According to many experts, caffeine does increase your concentration and affects productivity, which is why a cup of coffee before work is daily routine that just can’t be skipped.
However, coffee mostly improves convergent thinking, which is responsible for solving ordinary problems, and doesn’t really affect divergent thinking (responsible for generating new ideas).
Still, caffeine can cause placebo effect, meaning that, if you believe coffee makes you more creative, your brain may start doing the same.
What Can Really Boost Your Creativity?
Among those products affecting directly one’s creative abilities, experts speak highly of green tea (has a calming effect and makes you concentrate without overexcitement), dark chocolate (improves blood circulation in your brain), and, well, daydreaming.
The latter can be explained by the fact that sometimes the best ideas come when you’re half asleep and your mind is resting.
