Overview
- King’s College London researchers analysed data from 9,632 nine- to 11-year-olds and reported on Oct. 15–16, 2026 that higher caffeine intake was associated with slightly lower cortical surface area and more self-reported mental health problems months later.
- The pattern appeared at very low intake levels, with effects detectable from about one caffeinated drink per week and associations strongest for caffeine from everyday soft drinks.
- Children who consumed more caffeine also slept for shorter periods, and the researchers found that shorter sleep partly explained the link between caffeine, small brain-structure differences, and increased mental health symptoms at six months.
- Authors and outside experts stressed the study is observational, used self-reported drink and sleep measures and a single MRI timepoint, and therefore cannot prove caffeine causes the brain or mental-health findings.
- England will ban sales of high‑caffeine energy drinks to under‑16s from April 2027 but the new analysis has renewed calls to consider whether lower‑caffeine soft drinks also need regulation because they were the main source of intake in the study.