A Head-to-Head Comparison of the 2B-Alert Caffeine Optimization Algorithm Versus Standard Caffeine Dosing on Performance During Sleep Deprivation

The present study is running a head-to-head comparison of the 2B-Alert app against standard caffeine dosing recommendations to improve performance and minimize side effects in service members. A total of 150 participants will complete multiple psychomotor vigilance tests (PVTs) daily for 13 days at-home, recording their nightly sleep duration and daily caffeine intake to the 2B-Alert app. Then participants will complete 4-days in lab and will be assigned to 1 of 5 conditions: Placebo/Placebo, Placebo/Standard, Placebo/Optimized, Standard/Standard, Standard/Optimized. Individuals in the placebo conditions will receive 0mg of caffeine through a placebo version of the Military Energy Gum (MEG) every hour between 0200-0800. Individuals in the standard conditions will receive 200mg of caffeine (2 pieces of MEG) at 0200 and 0600 and placebo at all other hours between 0200-0800. Individuals in the optimized condition will have the amount of caffeine dosed to them based on their performance on the PVTs. Dosing for this condition can vary from 0mg-300mg every hour without exceeding a max of 800mg in 24 hours. It is anticipated that participants in the optimized conditions will perform better than those in other conditions on the following PVTs that are administered during the 62-hour total sleep deprivation phase of the study. In order to monitor sleep and potential effects on recovery sleep after the total sleep deprivation phase participants will undergo polysomnography during the baseline and recovery nights of sleep to monitor sleep quality, latency, and duration.