This may surprise you, but the best time to drink coffee isn't when you immediately roll out of bed in the morning. Rather, the best times to drink coffee or take in any caffeine in general is between 10 AM and noon, and two in the afternoon to five.
This means, avid coffee drinkers, which may include yourself, is drinking coffee at the wrong time. Morning, right after you wake up, is one of the worst times to drink coffee, according to Kenneth Wright, a sleep physiologist of the University of Colorado, Boulder. He says caffeine, the drug found in coffee, messes up your body's internal sense of time, known as the circadian clock.
"The circadian clock is way beyond 'sleep and wake,' " he said in an interview with NPR. "The circadian clock is present in cells throughout our entire body. It's in your fat cells; it's in your muscle cells. It's in your liver, for example, as well as in your brain."
Additionally, this is so because as soon as you wake up, cortisol levels are high. In a nutshell, cortisol is the stress hormone but it performs a crucial role in the morning. It is responsible for signalling the body to wake up. When you drink a substantial amount of caffeine, the body stops releasing the hormone, since the drug effectively compensates for it. This in turn interferes with the circadian rhythm, pushing your body clock further into the day.
According to a report in the Science Translational Medicine, a shot of double espresso if taken three hours before bedtime delays melatonin surge by 40 minutes. This is the hormone responsible for regulating your sleep and wake cycles. If the timing is off and it goes haywire, you will likely suffer from a lack of sleep.
Note that reduced sleep heavily impacts overall health. It is linked to higher stress, unproductivity and a weaker immune system.
