The smell of freshly brewed coffee permeated the ground floor of the Hillman Library last… The smell of freshly brewed coffee permeated the ground floor of the Hillman Library last week..

So did the anxiety of about 25 students. Cheez-It boxes, loose leaf paper and books were strewn across wooden library tables, and the night wore on.

This week, the Cup & Chaucer on the ground floor of the Hillman Library will serve free 8 oz. coffees and teas to students as they study or work on papers during Finals Week.

The free coffee and tea is only provided between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., although the rest of the library is still open for 24 hours.

At 9:59 p.m. on Wednesday night, students slowly started lining up at the counter, eager to get their energy boost.

Siobhan Marrero, a sophomore majoring in marketing, had already been at the Hillman for two hours, but needed a coffee at 10 p.m. if she planned to keep working on her philosophy paper until midnight. Herpaper wasn’t due until the next week, but wanted to get a head start on all of her work due during Finals Week.

Although she described herself as a “coffee addict,” she planned on drinking tea after her first and only coffee to avoid going overboard on the caffeine.

The 2011 Sleep in America Poll, conducted by the National Sleep Foundation — an organization that provides information to the public about the importance of sleep — indicated that Americans are coping with sleepiness by taking regular naps and drinking caffeine. The average person drinks about three 12 oz. caffeinated beverages on a weekday, with little difference in consumption between age groups.

According to the NSF, three 8 oz. cups of coffee per day is considered a moderate amount of caffeine, and six or more 8 oz. cups of coffee per day is considered an excessive intake of caffeine. In moderation, caffeine can make a person more alert, but too much can make the consumer irritable and anxious, which can make concentration and studying difficult.

The line at the Cup & Chaucer reached about 15 students at some points Wednesday. The barrista behind the counter filled up endless cups of small coffees, ready for tired students to grab and go.

A mountain of trash — potato chip bags, coffee cups, brown paper bags and napkins — topplled out of the trash can onto the floor before the bag was replaced.

The counter beside the cups of coffee held a large, plastic jug of honey and containers of assorted creams. The sugar from the packets was sprinkled all across the black surface.

Jason Bauman, the supervisor for the Campus Bean Scene, which runs most of the coffee carts on campus, said that the Cup & Chaucer has now been providing the free coffee and tea during finals week for three years. The Cup & Chaucer is the only campus coffee cart that serves free coffee and tea during the week before finals and the actual Finals Week.

Cup & Chaucer usually closes at 10 p.m. at the latest, but during the last two weeks of the semester, it extends its hours until 2 a.m.

“We stay open and have the free coffee and tea so they can study,” Bauman said. “It’s just so the students can have what they need to study.”

Because caffeine is a stimulant, most people reach for a cup of warm coffee after waking up. In this case, however, they do so at 10 p.m. to remain alert.

Bauman said that the Cup & Chaucer is serving more than 250 oz. of coffee and tea each night during its late-night hours.

Once caffeine enters the bloodstream, it remains for several hours. It can take about six hours for one half of the caffeine to be eliminated, according to the NSF.

While it’s tempting to go back to one’s room and sleep, some students on Wednesday night were determined to spend the next few hours in the library to get their work done.

Elise Gamertsfelder, a freshman nursing student, had been studying anatomy and microbiology in the library since 6 p.m.

She was one of the first people in line when the Cup & Chaucer started providing the free coffee and tea. She planned to drink just one coffee for the night, just for a caffeine boost.

“I’m just getting sleepy,” she said.

Gamertsfelder said it’s probably not the best idea to encourage students to stay up late in replace of much-needed sleep, “but I’m not going to complain about free coffee.”s