How can caffeine consumption interact with alcohol use?

• A. It neutralizes alcohol's effects completely
• B. It masks sleepiness and intoxication, encouraging more drinking and riskier behaviour
• C. It reduces impairment from alcohol
• D. It causes alcohol to metabolize faster

Answer: (B)

Mixing caffeine with alcohol can make you feel more alert, which masks how drunk you actually are. That means you might underestimate your level of impairment and keep drinking or take bigger risks because you don’t feel as sleepy or see how intoxicated you are. But the caffeine doesn’t remove alcohol’s effects on the brain, so judgment, coordination, and reaction time are still impaired. It also doesn’t speed up how quickly alcohol is processed by the body—time is what reduces intoxication. So the key idea is that caffeine hides the signs of intoxication and can lead to more drinking and riskier behavior.