When is the best time to drink coffee: waking up or in the afternoon? Nutritionist Lin Yuwei: Don’t drink coffee at the wrong time at 4 key moments

Coffee is known as "black gold". When you wake up in the morning, is the first thing you do to drink a big cup of coffee? Feeling sluggish without coffee? Many office workers rely on coffee to stay energized and start a good day. Coffee is not only good for you, it also has many health benefits, such as burning fat, improving endurance and athletic performance, preventing diabetes, and reducing the incidence of cancer and hepatitis. Why does drinking coffee in the morning give you a quick boost? What is the best time to drink coffee? Let’s hear what nutritionist Lin Yuwei has to say.

Caffeine stimulates 2 major ingredients to help boost alertness

Nutritionist Lin Yuwei has compiled her personal insights based on the differences in drinking coffee at different times for your reference. And first, let’s crack the best time to drink coffee. Why does drinking coffee refresh you? In fact, no matter when you drink coffee, the caffeine in it will help you stay alert by stimulating the following two parts.

Cortisol:

First, caffeine increases cortisol, which is a stress hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex. Higher concentrations of cortisol in the body will send out signals to stay awake, which is necessary to maintain work focus and efficiency during the day.

Adenosine:

In addition, caffeine will compete with adenosine, a neurotransmitter in the brain that promotes sleep, for binding sites, rendering adenosine ineffective and ultimately making it difficult for people to fall asleep.

Don’t drink coffee at the wrong time at 4 key moments

1. Drinking coffee immediately after waking up has a lower cost-performance ratio

Related studies have mentioned that the body's daily cortisol concentration will fluctuate depending on the time of day, morning, noon, and evening. The body's cortisol usually reaches its peak around 8:30 in the morning (note), and then the concentration decreases over time, reaching its lowest point around 12:00 in the morning.

Therefore, when office workers just wake up, their cortisol is about to reach its peak or is at its peak. Since the concentration of cortisol is already high, drinking a cup of coffee right away will not give them the full benefits of caffeine or a better physical sensation.

[Note]: Drinking it immediately after waking up will affect the changes in cortisol concentration in the morning. Cortisol is a stress hormone secreted by the adrenal glands. Excessive caffeine intake stimulates the adrenal glands to continuously secrete cortisol, which can easily cause stress on the adrenal glands. In addition, excessive cortisol secretion is not a good thing for people who need to control their weight. In short, it may increase the possibility of stress-induced obesity!

2. Drinking coffee in the afternoon or evening may affect your sleep

When you take the first sip of coffee, you won’t feel the effects of caffeine immediately. It usually takes 20 to 30 minutes for caffeine to reach the blood and then be transported to the brain through circulation, so that people can feel awake and alert.

And each person's response to caffeine and how long they stay awake still varies due to their individual genes. It is better not to drink coffee too late, as the caffeine has not been completely metabolized. It is not recommended to drink it after the afternoon.

Nutritionist Lin Yuwei said that perhaps drinking coffee in advance around 10-11 in the morning when the cortisol concentration in the body begins to drop can help you cope with the situation in time (around 11:30 to 12 noon). When the cortisol concentration drops, you can get caffeine in time to wake up your brain and improve your concentration.

3. Drinking coffee at this time is good value for money

▪️Nutritionist Lin Yuwei said that perhaps drinking coffee in advance around 10-11 in the morning when the cortisol concentration in the body begins to decrease can help you cope with the situation. (Around 11:30 to 12 noon) The cortisol concentration decreases, and you can get caffeine in time to wake up your brain and improve your concentration.

▪️In addition, the brain gradually clears adenosine during sleep, so the adenosine level in the body is usually at its lowest in the morning right after waking up. Then, as the time spent awake increases, adenosine will gradually increase, making people gradually feel sleepy. Therefore, compared to drinking coffee immediately after waking up, "it is more recommended to drink a cup of coffee around 10:30 noon to 12 noon."

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*doi: 10.1177/2042018810380214