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* Moderate levels of caffeine can improve athletic performance by about 2%, which is about 5 minutes on a 4 hour marathon. This improvement appears to happen regardless of how regularly caffeine is used.
* For running, the best recommendation is a dose of 3 to 5 mg/kg before exercise, followed by 1 to 2 mg/kg periodically after that. For runners, a [[Comparison of Energy Gels| caffeinated energy gel]] is probably the best source.
* While it's commonly believed that caffeine causes hydrationdehydration, this is only true when high doses are given to those not used to it. Drinking a caffeinated beverage will produce about the same amount of urine, which is probably the source of the myth. People will drink caffeinated beverages when they're not thirsty, so they assume it's the caffeine that's causing them to need to urinate, not the fluid they've drunk.
* Obviously caffeine can interfere with sleep, but this effect can last much longer than you might expect. Even caffeine taken early in the morning can impact your nights' sleep.
* Caffeine in coffee does not seem as effective at improving performance, so other sources should be used.
<ref name="Pasman-1995">WJ. Pasman, MA. van Baak, AE. Jeukendrup, A. de Haan, The effect of different dosages of caffeine on endurance performance time., Int J Sports Med, volume 16, issue 4, pages 225-30, May 1995, doi [http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-2007-972996 10.1055/s-2007-972996], PMID [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7657415 7657415]</ref>
<ref name="CaffRedBull">Nutrition Facts and Analysis for Energy drink, RED BULL, with added caffeine, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamins B6 and B12 http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beverages/7399/2 </ref>
<ref name="Macfarlane">author Alan Macfarlane, Iris Macfarlane !!coauthors!!, The Empire of Tea, publisher The Overlook Press, isbn 1-58567-493-1, page 32 !!page!!, 2004</ref>
<ref name="Lin-2003">YS. Lin, YJ. Tsai, JS. Tsay, JK. Lin, Factors affecting the levels of tea polyphenols and caffeine in tea leaves., J Agric Food Chem, volume 51, issue 7, pages 1864-73, Mar 2003, doi [http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf021066b 10.1021/jf021066b], PMID [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12643643 12643643]</ref>
<ref name="ShishikuraKhokhar2005">Yoko Shishikura, Santosh Khokhar, Factors affecting the levels of catechins and caffeine in tea beverage: estimated daily intakes and antioxidant activity, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, volume 85, issue 12, 2005, pages 2125–2133, ISSN [http://www.worldcat.org/issn/0022-5142 0022-5142], doi [http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.2206 10.1002/jsfa.2206]</ref>