Drinking too much coffee may cause people to hear noises that aren’t actually there, warns a new study reported by the Daily Mail.
Researchers in Australia worked with 92 volunteers who had different levels of stress and caffeine consumption. The volunteers were asked to listen to "white noise" – a constant fuzzy sound like television static – and told to press a button if they heard Bing Crosby’s classic song White Christmas buried in the noise.
"We didn’t include White Christmas in the white noise but found that more people who were very stressed and had high levels of caffeine thought they heard the song," explained lead researcher Simon Crowe.
"The combination of caffeine and stress affect the likelihood of an individual experiencing a psychosis-like symptom."
The researchers found that as little as five cups a coffee a day were enough to trigger the aural hallucinations.
"Caution needs to be exercised with the use of this overtly ‘safe’ drug," concluded Crowe.