Drivers looking for strategies to stay alert behind the wheel for longer periods may want to consider spreading out their consumption of caffeinated beverages. According to a study conducted by the Rush University Medical Center, small doses of caffeine ingested regularly during the day help people avoid falling asleep while maintaining cognitive skills.

“I hate to say it, but most of the population is using caffeine the wrong way by drinking a few mugs of coffee or tea in the morning, or their Starbuck’s grande on the way back to work,” said James Wyatt, sleep researcher. “This means the caffeine levels will be falling levels in the brain as the day goes on.”

In an experiment, subjects who took frequent small doses of caffeine were found to perform better in cognitive tests and exhibited fewer accidental sleep onsets. Caffeine is believed to block the homeostatic system— the body’s sleep system that drives the desire to sleep the longer one is awake.

However, caffeine is no substitute for sleep, as the same subjects reported feeling sleepier than subjects who took placebos.