Caffeine and a long study block: what it can and cannot do
For adults doing a long block of study, caffeine is the tool a lot of people reach for and the one that is easiest to use badly: too much, too late, and stacked on too little sleep. This page is the arithmetic of using it well, and the honest limit of what it does. It is written by the people who make PAX, for adults 18 and over, and it will not tell you caffeine makes you cleverer, because it does not.
PAX is caffeine. There is no nicotine in it and there never will be. One pouch is 100mg, about one coffee, and that number is the whole point of what follows.
Does caffeine help you study?
Not the way people hope. Caffeine helps a rested person feel more alert; it does not restore performance under serious sleep loss, and it does not make you learn anything you would not otherwise learn.
That is where the evidence stops and where this page stops with it. Caffeine's effect on alertness is well established for the ingredient. There is no study of a caffeine pouch and studying, and we are not going to invent one. What a pouch changes is practical: a known dose, no cup, no can, nothing to spill on the notes, and a price that does not add up the way a week of cafe coffees does.
How much caffeine across a study day?
No more than 400mg from everything, and for a long block that means spacing it, not stacking it.
A cafe coffee is anywhere from 95mg to 200mg. An instant is about 80mg. A 250ml energy drink is up to 80mg and a 500ml can up to 160mg. A PAX pouch is 100mg every time. Where those figures come from is on our caffeine pouches vs energy drinks vs coffee page. Count the total for the day, and count it early, because four cafe coffees by 2pm leaves no room for anything at 6pm.
One pouch per serving, never two at once, no more than four a day, and only if you are not getting caffeine from anywhere else. How to use one is on our how to use a caffeine pouch page.
When in the day should study caffeine sit?
Early in the block, and nowhere near bedtime, because the caffeine is still in you hours after you stop.
Caffeine's half life runs somewhere between roughly three and ten hours. Research has found that 400mg of caffeine taken six hours before bed still disrupts sleep. Work backwards from when you plan to sleep and stop earlier than feels necessary. A pouch at 9pm before an early night is the same problem as a coffee at 9pm.
What does a study week of coffee cost, and what does a pouch cost?
A takeaway coffee averaged $5.20 in New Zealand in March 2026, on Stats NZ's figure. A PAX pouch is 75c from a single tin, 60c across three tins and 46c on the six-tin subscription.
Two coffees a day for a five-day study week is $52. Two pouches a day for the same week is $7.50 from a single tin, $6 across three tins, or $4.60 on subscription. Instant coffee made at home is cheaper than any of them, and if that is what you drink, it wins on price and we will not pretend otherwise. The like-for-like is one pouch against one bought coffee. The caffeine is not identical: a pouch is 100mg and a cafe coffee can be double that.
What should a long study block actually run on?
Sleep, food, water, breaks and daylight. Caffeine sits on top of those; it does not replace any of them.
If the block is running on a short night, more caffeine will not fix it and can make the next night worse. Eat properly, get up and move every hour or so, and keep the caffeine to the first half of the day. The honest use of a pouch here is the ordinary flat patch in an otherwise rested day, taken at a desk with both hands free.
One pouch per serving. PAX is for adults 18 and over. It is not for you if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you are sensitive to caffeine. PAX contains caffeine, and too much caffeine can cause an accelerated heart rate, nervousness, irritability and trouble sleeping. Who should not use one, and why, is on our are caffeine pouches safe? page.
Questions?
Email hello@paxenergy.co.nz or call 027 777 2899. If something on this page is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
