Individuals who rely on a cup of coffee or other caffeinated beverage to get them going in the morning may be fooling themselves. A new study has found that individuals who are addicted to caffeine really don’t get a benefit.

"Although caffeine consumers feel alerted by caffeine, the effect is actually only bringing you back from caffeine withdrawal-induced, low-level alertness," said the study’s author, Peter Rogers. "You are not gaining anything over and above a non-consumer of caffeine."

According to HealthDay, British researchers asked 379 participants to abstain from drinking caffeinated beverages for 16 hours. They then gave half of the participants 100 milligrams of caffeine (the equivalent of one to two cups of coffee), and another 150 milligrams of caffeine an hour and a half later. The other half were given a placebo. Subjects were also asked about their normal caffeine intake.

While both light and heavy caffeine drinkers reported feeling more alert after drinking caffeine, heavier caffeine drinkers reported more side effects after receiving a placebo, including headaches and a sharp drop in alertness.

Caffeine is believed to be the most commonly used drug in the world. It effects the central nervous system and can impact the regulating of blood pressure, wakefulness, alertness and anxiety responses.