For many students, cramming for exams and pulling all-nighters is more of a reality before finals than studying ahead of time. So, while there is no replacement for sleep, there are a few healthier and safer energy-boosting alternatives to help students stay awake.

"Staying awake late into the night before finals is quite self-defeating," said Frederick Brown, associate professor of Psychology at Penn State. Getting a short night of sleep before an exam cuts off the last half of a normal sleep, which contains much of the REM -- rapid eye movement -- sleep that is involved with memory consolidation, he said.

"The very memories of studied information that students want to use on exams," he said. "It's much smarter to study material well beforehand, use the night before an exam to review the material to refresh it in memory, and then sleep on it when your brain is then spontaneously organizing the information."

This is the ideal, Brown said.

But if students choose to stay up to study, drinking caffeine in moderation might be the best thing to do, Rose Martin, nutrition professor at Penn State, said.

"Caffeine is not all as evil as people make it out to be," she said. "Over time the body adapts to it, as long as you drink it routinely and it's definitely much safer than using energy boosters like amphetamines."

If avid coffee drinker are looking to use it for that extra boost to study late, however, they might want to lay off it for a while to clean out their systems to make it more effective, Martin said.

Martin cautioned moderation is the key. The average recommended dose of caffeine that should be consumed daily is no more than 200 milligrams -- one full cup of coffee.

This amount can be extremely affective in waking up the mentally fatigued, she said.

Lahiru Fernando (freshman- aerospace engineering) said he relies on music, food and water, not caffeine, to help him stay awake to study.

"I've heard that if you take too much caffeine you can't feel the effects of it, plus you crash afterwards," he said.

Martin agreed, and said that any more than the recommended amount can have the adverse affect on the body, particularly if you consume more than 400 milligrams.

It can cause nervousness and increase anxiety that can potentially hurt students' performance, or in this case level of concentration.

"It depends on the time of the day, but I drink frappuccinos and always keep some kind of drink near by to keep me going," said Ekta Motiani (freshman-finance).

Aside from caffeine, there are additional alternatives to help refresh the mind and body late into the night.

"Chocolate chip cookies are an incentive and my roommate is usually awake too, so we usually help keep each other up," Motiani said.

There are many good substitutes to caffeine -- specifically coffee -- that students can use, Morgen Hummel, manager at Nature's Pantry, 1350 East College Avenue, said.

Coffee substitutes that are grain based can give coffee addicts the sensation of drinking coffee but have more nutritious value to them. Plus they come in a wide variety of flavors, she said.

Other options might be green or black tea, or choices that have ginseng or a vitamin-B complex -- all of which contain nutritious ingredients and antioxidants, she said.

"Dandelion roots, for example, can be a great source of vitamins and mineral, that can still give you the energy boost without the caffeine, helping students stay awake and alert," Hummel said.

While experts agree nothing is better than a good night's sleep, other non-caffeinated options students can utilize are to eat healthier late night snacks like fruits and vegetables, find a cool working environment and stay well-hydrated to help stay alert and focused in those late night hours.