Customer Reviews

5 Hour Energy - Berry, 24 -Count 1.93 oz Bottles

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

5-Hour Energy Drink actually does work. If I am exhausted, it does not make me feel great, but it will get me through. It creates enhanced alertness, also seems to have a positive effect on eyesight and helps with tired eyes. It does take most of the "awfulness" out of being overly tired, and can make it possible to do the things I still need to do if the day is not over, even if I wish it were. The first time you take it, everything may seem "brighter" for a few moments (light sources may seem to "pop" slightly more than normal). This passes, and it feels like you were able to take a 90-minute power nap. For me, it lasts a bit less than the full 5 hours, but it is a very welcome boost. There really is no crash for me when it wears off, as advertised, and it does not make me feel "wired", just more alert. Not bad for something that comes in a little bottle for a couple bucks. As with all good things, be sensible, and if you choose to try it, use in moderation. I do not and would not use this every day, but it is nice to know it is there when needed from time to time.

I was skeptical about this product until I was on my way home during a very long business day and felt sleepy at the wheel. I stopped for a soda and thought I might get one of the energy drinks that the kids seem to like so much. While the drinks are loaded with sugar (calories), 5 Hour Energy is not. It worked and without the calories. I used the whole bottle and returned home safely in about three hours of driving. I have since used it the same way and had the same results. I don't use it regularly -- typically while driving and feeling more tired than I prefer. I have had no side effects and the lack of calories is a major benefit.

I split this order with a co-worker. I am surprised at how quickly this product works. I only drink a 1/3 of the bottle at a time (very sweet, have something to drink available). This product provides energy without the jitters that other products give you. Recommend that you use in small doses to determine how your body will tolerate it.

I have a job with a 3:30am start time. Getting 8 hours of sleep is a rare thing and the job requires lots of focus and quick reactions. I thought nothing was more powerful than a caffeine pill at 200mg per pill. I've been known to break a pill in half thinking 100mg was enough in many cases.

After finally trying 5 Hour Energy, I'm shocked at how it seemed to exceed the boost I got from one 200mg caffeine pill AND had the unexpected bonus of feeling an instant pickup with the very first couple of sips from the bottle! I drank it on a empty stomach with no problems. There was a very gradual let down of energy after 3.5 hours for me but not the infamous quick crash associated with caffeine. With a caffeine pill, I start losing the boost after about 4.5 hours.

The problem is a bottle caffeine pills is 80% cheaper than 5 Hour so I don't think I will switch completely over to it but rather use it on occasion.

NOTE: These supplements are no substitute for a full night's sleep for long-term health. That's also how the immune system is boosted.

tried this product for the first time today. If you are like me, then the hours of 1pm-5pm can really be a drag, in terms of energy levels.

It does give a subtle energy boost within an hour. Does not make you "jittery", also it has no calories or carbs, which is also a plus. The product's website reports that among the ingredients are vitamins: B6, B12, B3, and B9. The B vitamins help the cells in our body metabolize energy.

In general, enhances your alertness. As another reviewer has observed, this would be a good product to take when you are driving long distances and need to be alert and focused.

SUMMARY:
Ok so this is a long review, but the short summary is that although i regularly consume 5-Hour energy i do so with the knowledge that the effect i am feeling is mostly from the caffeine, and this effect is the same as caffeine consumption in coffee form, this also includes the "crash" later. The vitamin-B's added have as far as i have been able to find very little evidence supporting any effect, and at large doses some are toxic. I buy it in general because of the convenience of the concentrated form, and the fact that it is not calorie laden to the extreme (a la Starbucks). That said i could not find any evidence suggesting that 5-hour energy has any effects which makes it preferable to coffee
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Let me start out by saying that i am an avid 5 hour energy drinker. As a university student i go through at least a few every time a major exam week is coming up. Being a Psychology student with a focus on Neuroscience i decided to actually have a look at the contents of 5-Hr and and the scientific basis which merits its inclusion in the energy drink. Drugs that affect the body are intrinsically very complicated with many different effects on different parts of the body, so this is not a complete picture and will often be a very simplified one, but i think it will do for our purposes here.

Caffeine:
5 hour energy contains caffeine, this i am sure comes as no surprise to anyone. What might be a surprise is that caffeine is a drug, this only means that it has a physiological effect on the body, but it is important for several reasons. One is that there is quite a lot of evidence for the buildup of both addiction and tolerance to caffeine, most people that regularly consume caffeine do build up tolerance, requiring larger consumption for the same effect .Without getting too technical caffeine works by effecting receptors on cells called "neurons", caffeine is what is called a "direct antagonist" to adenosine receptors. That means caffeine inhibits neurons from reacting to adenosine (it sort of works like a "cap" on top of the receptors stopping adenosine from attaching there). this inhibitory effect "increases" cerebral (brain) blood flow, as well as decrease the effects of adenosine on the brain, adenosine builds up in the body over an entire day, and seems to play an important part in promoting sleepiness. By blocking these receptors caffeine temporarily reduces the feeling of being tired. It does however in no way reduce the need to sleep overall, as adenosine is still building up in the body even when you have consumed the caffeine. It is like being under water, caffeine can act as a "air bubble" isolating us from the water for while, but once the air is used up you still need to deal with the water, in the case of adenosine, this means sleeping.

The "crash" after caffeine consumption is simply the neurons again being affected by adenosine, so you are now feeling how tired the body really is, as caffeine has built up while you have been under the influence, the subjective experience is from a higher high then you were before to a lower low. The importance of this is that as far as i know there is NO WAY to remove this effect, unless more caffeine is consumed. As such the claim that there is "no crash later" sounds very disingenuous to me. There is also conflicting evidence as to whether or not caffeine improves mental alertness or just increases cognition in addicts back to a non-addict baseline, however as far as i know there is no consensus in either direction, and i am not willing to spend hours interpreting the papers dealing with this issue.

Various vitamin B:
There is a lot of misconceptions out there as to what vitamins actually are. Vitamins are defined as any organic compound needed in tiny amounts that the body needs, but does not produce. So by definition we need Vitamin B, however that does not mean taking lots of them is good for you. Its a bit like saying "well the body needs carbohydrates to survive, so the more i eat the healthier i will get". So the question is not if vitamin B are effective (they are) but if they have an effect in large doses. Virtually everyone gets all the vitamin B the body needs, the one exception is usually pregnant women and vitamin B9.In general there is little to no evidence of positive effects on cognition or attention after consumption of any vitamin B, vitamin B is liquid soluble so most of it simply passes right through the body. The one *possible* exception is that there are some exploratory studies finding that vitamin B6 consumption in children with ADHD leads to better attentiveness and cognition. However these studies (at least the ones i was able to find) are generally small (30-50 participants) and thus unreliable. Even if there was a link this would most likely be linked to a specific deficit in people with ADHD, not the population as a whole. I also found several meta-analyses (papers reviewing other papers) that suggested no link between vitamin B6 (or B12) and increased cognition or attention.

There is however a danger associated with some vitamin B's if consumed inappropriately. Overdosing on vitamin B6 and B3 is toxic to the body, so don't consume more than 2/day (recommended max from 5-hr themselves) for extended periods of time, it is well documented that vitamin B3 overdosing is associated liver damage in large quantities, while vitamin B6 is associated with nerve damage at high quantities the FDA sets their upper daily limit at 100mg which is roughly 70 times their recommended dosage, a bottle has 40mg B6 so you can do the math from there.

Energy Blend:
So this is the shortest section because there is not really a lot to say, Glucuronic acid is sometimes used for more effective delivery of drugs, but doubtful that that is effective here. The much touted Taurine is also a non-story with the EFSA (think european FDA) stating that there is no effect positive or negative from the levels presented in energy drinks. at least one study suggests Citicoline might have some positive effect on memory in people with dementia, but i was unable to find a study which dealt with a healthy population.

So why do i continue to consume 5-Hour? even though the vitamin B has little proven effect, the caffeine does, in the sense that it acts the way one would expect it to. I consume it because it is more convenient to bring around then coffee, is consumed faster, and tastes quite good (in my opinion), and at $1.70 a bottle, its cheaper than Starbucks and far less unhealthy.

I tried 5 Hour Energy for the first time today. Waking up quite groggy, I drank the whole thing at around 10am on my way to a meeting. I had the orange flavor, and while it wasn't the tastiest thing I've ever had, it wasn't the worst, either. Anyway, after seeing these commercials for years, the only reason I actually decided to buy one to try was because of all the surprisingly positive reviews here on Amazon. I took it fully expecting it to work... and it didn't. I did feel a slight perk, about what you'd expect from drinking a little less than half of a coffee, and given that the shot contains roughly the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee, that's no surprise. For the following 5 hours, I felt...pretty normal -- normal as in, "I don't feel any more energetic right now than any other day." I don't know how they get away with selling these little shots for $3 retail (about half that here on Amazon, if you buy in bulk), but you should save your money and just drink a cup of coffee, instead.

So, I am coming from the perspective of being rather addicted to caffeine. Now I am addicted to these 5 hour energy drinks. I use this to replace coffee or red bull, etc. It tastes better than any other energy drink I've tried (not saying a lot, but still doesn't taste that bad). It is small, so you don't have to commit a lot of time to drinking it. It has basically no calories or sugar, so it won't ruin your diet. And it even has vitamins! The "no crash later" claim is not 100% true, but it is definitely a gentler come down compared to anything else.

Overall, gives a really nice kick without any real negatives!

Needing an energy boost while we were shopping, my boyfriend and I gave these a try. Neither of us felt the least bit energized, even after a few hours. The only thing we felt was rather worn out and sick later on in the day. For the money we paid, we could have had Starbucks for a real burst of energy.

I bought a two ounce bottle today because I have to stay up all night finishing up a paper. I've never had one of these before so I followed the directions and drank only half the bottle first. After just 10 minutes I noticed my breathing was getting stronger and I felt very strange. My heart feels like it's racing so fast and it's making me feel very uncomfortable. I notice I'm not as tired as I was before, but not as focused and alert as I get when I drink a can of Amped. Besides that, I know it claims to be sugar free, but when I looked at the bottle I noticed it had a sugar substitute. To me, anything with sucralose is equally bad for you. Several people told me not to drink this and I foolishly ignored them. I will not drink this again.

Ps. I drank this on a full stomach