The modern world is deceptively exhausting. Anyone who’s moved very little yet has felt physically and psychologically drained at the end of the day knows this all too well. We try to battle it with varieties of caffeine or supplements, but all that does is make us vibrate at a deeply unpleasant frequency.
Thankfully, a team of researchers from the University of Tsukuba in Japan has figured out a possible solution, and it can be quite refreshing if you’re into it: sparkling water.
Using gamers as guinea pigs, the researchers tested 14 casual gamers in a controlled setup where they played games for three hours at different times, once with plain water and once with carbonated water. All other conditions were made the same, including the game they played, which is described in the study’s abstract as a “virtual football game,” which we can either assume is FIFA if it’s football or Madden if it’s the other football. Since the study’s text refers to the errors committed by players as “fouls,” we can assume it’s former football. The only difference was whether or not the water they had to drink was carbonated.
The results consistently showed that while drinking sparkling water, the participants’ reaction times were better, they reported less fatigue, and maintained higher levels of attention. The pupils are often a proxy for measuring alertness, and those things constrict less when they drank plain water. Overall, their bodies looked less tired, and the gamer participants reported feeling less tired.
Sparkling Water Improved Other Gaming Metrics Too
The gamers also reported behavioral differences. The ones drinking sparkling water committed fewer in-game fouls, suggesting to researchers that the gamers drinking sparkling water had slightly better control and decision-making, even if their overall performance didn’t change a whole lot. They also reported enjoying their gaming sessions more.
If all this sounds silly to you, there actually is a simple explanation for all: Carbon dioxide might activate sensory receptors in the mouth known as TRP channels, which are linked to alertness and arousal. In a sense, simple carbonated water might be acting as a stimulant like caffeine, but without the jitteriness and crash. The study didn’t directly test that, but it is a possible explanation for why sparkling water might nudge the brain toward alertness without relying on an actual stimulant.
There are some fairly large caveats here to consider. For instance, it was a small study, and it was partially funded by a company that makes sparkling water, and two of its authors were employed by that company. So take all of this with a grain of salt and don’t take any of it to heart until less ethically compromised independent research teams verify its findings. The researchers say that the sponsor played no role in the study design or analysis, but it’s the kind of detail that you absolutely cannot ignore, and makes her eyebrows fire up in suspicion when you hear it for obvious reasons.
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