Energy, Sleep and Drive: What 825 Quiz Takers Told Us

Who answered

825 quiz takers, all through one five-question form. More than half were 45 or older.

Age band	Quiz takers	Share
25 to 34	109	13.2%
35 to 44	286	34.7%
45 to 54	238	28.8%
55 and over	192	23.3%

When the day falls apart

Mid-afternoon is the weak point for 39% of quiz takers, and it gets more common with age: 29% of those aged 25 to 34, rising to 52% of those 55 and over.

Age band	Share who crash mid-afternoon
25 to 34	29.4%
35 to 44	34.3%
45 to 54	40.3%
55 and over	51.6%

How they sleep

Only about a third of quiz takers (35%) described their sleep as fine. The largest group, 45%, picked "restless, mind won't shut off".

Sleep answer	Quiz takers	Share
Restless, mind won't shut off	374	45.3%
Out cold, but dragging by 3pm	159	19.3%
Fine, but foggy mornings	120	14.5%
Fine, but can't focus	103	12.5%
Fine, managing weight	69	8.4%

Restless sleep tracks with when the day goes wrong. Among quiz takers who said late night is when the day beats them, 63% also reported restless sleep (50 of 80). Among those who crash mid-afternoon it was 37%.

What they reach for

Nearly three in four quiz takers handle a bad stretch with coffee or with nothing at all.

Go-to fix	Quiz takers	Share
Coffee, a lot	321	38.9%
Nothing, tough it out	278	33.7%
Supplements	97	11.8%
Nootropics or more coffee	94	11.4%
Intermittent fasting	35	4.2%

What they want back

Drive and stamina came first at 35%, and steady energy second at 26%. Together, six in ten quiz takers want some form of energy back.

Most want back	Quiz takers	Share
Drive and stamina	292	35.4%
Energy without the crash	212	25.7%
Focus	126	15.3%
Deep sleep	112	13.6%
Hunger control	83	10.1%

One correction to our own early read. A first cut of 269 answers suggested that wanting drive and stamina back rose sharply with age. At 825 answers it is flat, between 32% and 39% in every age band. Small samples mislead, so we are reporting the larger one.

What we make of it

This part is our interpretation, not a finding.

The sleep gap

The number that stands out is the gap between two answers. 45% of quiz takers sleep restlessly, but only 14% named deep sleep as the thing they most want back. Most asked for energy and drive instead. Our read is that many people are treating a sleep problem as an energy problem, which is how a third coffee ends up being the fix.

The research gives that read some support. In a small study, a week of sleep restricted to five hours a night lowered daytime testosterone in 10 healthy young men (Leproult and Van Cauter, 2011). If drive is what you want back, sleep is a reasonable place to look first. Our sleep guide covers the basics.

The coffee habit

Coffee is not the villain. Caffeine works: in a placebo-controlled crossover trial, caffeine improved attention accuracy and reduced mental fatigue ratings, and combining it with L-theanine, the amino acid found naturally in tea, added faster reaction times (Haskell et al., 2008). The question is timing and dose, which we cover in L-theanine and caffeine for focus.

The evening side

For the 45% whose mind will not shut off, the evening routine matters more than the morning one. Passionflower brewed as tea improved self-rated sleep quality compared with placebo in a small trial (Ngan and Conduit, 2011). Passionflower is one of six herbs in our Nighttime Blend. We wrote about another of them in hops for sleep.

Which pattern is yours

If you see yourself in the answers, here is where we would start. These are routines, not treatments.

Your pattern	Share of quiz takers	Where to start	Read next
Mind won't shut off at night	45.3%	A caffeine-free evening cup and a fixed wind-down time. Nighttime Blend: hops, chamomile, skullcap, passionflower, damiana, rooibos.	Sleep guide
Crash mid-afternoon	39.4%	Look at last night's sleep and lunch before adding caffeine. Keep caffeine to the first half of the day.	Tea for brain fog
A lot of coffee	38.9%	Swap one cup for a caffeinated tea you can dose. Energy Blend: yerba mate, guayusa, Siberian ginseng, lemon myrtle, licorice root, dragon fruit. High caffeine, so mornings only.	Yerba mate vs green tea
Lose it halfway through focused work	22.3%	A morning cup built for attention. Mind Performance Blend: Earl Grey, lemon balm, rhodiola, schisandra. Contains caffeine from the Earl Grey.	Rhodiola for focus
Want drive and stamina back	35.4%	Sleep first, then a daily caffeine-free habit. Vitality Blend: ashwagandha root, horny goat weed, ginger, turmeric, saw palmetto, rooibos, chai mix.	Testosterone tea guide
Want hunger control	10.1%	An unsweetened cup in the fasting window. Fasting Blend: fennel seed, peppermint, hibiscus, green tea, fenugreek, barberry, licorice root. Contains caffeine from green tea.	Best tea for fasting

Method and limits

• Sample: 825 completed quizzes, October 3 to November 4, 2026. No duplicates or test entries.
• How people found it: a paid ad on Facebook and Instagram shown to adults aged 25 to 65. 815 of the 825 came through a single ad.
• Who they are: people interested enough in a men's tea brand to take a quiz. They are prospects, not customers, and not a representative sample of anyone. We did not ask gender, so we describe them as quiz takers. Meta's delivery data, which reflects profile gender and not anything we asked, shows 98% of leads (805 of 823) came from male profiles.
• What the answers are: one choice per question from five options. Self-reported, no follow-up.
• Small groups: we do not report any breakdown with fewer than 20 people in it.
• What this cannot show: cause. The link between restless sleep and late-night crashes is an association in one sample.

FAQ

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