High Coffee Intake May Cause Auditory Hallucinations

If you've just downed your fifth cup of coffee and you seem to be hearing things that aren't actually there, well, you might want to blame the caffeine in your cup of Joe.

Australian researchers found that drinking fiveregular cups of caffeinated coffeemay raise the risk of auditory hallucinations, according to a small study published in the journalPersonality and Individual Differences.

LaTrobe University researchers asked 92 people with varying levels ofcaffeine intakeand stress listen to three minutes of white noise via headphones. The study participants were told that Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" would be playing in the headphones, and when they heard it, to hit a buzzer.

While the song never actually played, the people who were hopped up on five or morecups of coffeebuzzed three times on average, while the low-caffeinated people buzzed just once on average, theHerald Sunin Australia reported.

Though this particular study size was small, it's worth noting that the findings match up with that of a study published in 2009 in the same journal. That study showed that highly caffeinated people -- those who had consumed the equivalent of three brewed cups of coffee -- were three times more likely tohear or see things that aren't there,LiveScience reported.

The theory is that caffeine may worsen theeffects of stresson the body. The body naturally releases a hormone called cortisol when it is under stress, but caffeine seems to increase the amount of cortisol that is released.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.