Research confirms that the best time to drink coffee is in the morning
If you're one of those people who drink coffee every morning, the good news is that a study has shown that the positive health effects of coffee vary depending on when you drink it during the day, with drinking it in the morning being especially effective. Experts say this is the first time that the time of day you drink coffee has been identified as affecting your health.
Coffee drinking timing and mortality in US adults | European Heart Journal | Oxford Academic
Start your day with a morning coffee! | European Heart Journal | Oxford Academic
https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae823/7928645
Morning Coffee Timing Linked to Longer Life and Better Heart Health
https://scitechdaily.com/morning-coffee-timing-linked-to-longer-life-and-better-heart-health/
In a paper published in the peer-reviewed medical journal European Heart Journal on January 8, 2025, a team led by Professor Lu Qi of Tulane University in the United States presented a study analyzing the relationship between the timing of coffee drinking and health and mortality risk.
The study first identified patterns of coffee drinking habits from questionnaire data of 40,725 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted by the US Department of Health and Human Services from 1999 to 2018. Then, using data from 1,463 men and women who provided highly accurate dietary records in two surveys of female and male nurses, the study examined when and how much coffee people in each pattern actually drank.
As a result, it was found that coffee drinking patterns could be broadly divided into two patterns: a 'morning pattern' in which coffee is consumed concentrated in the morning between 4:00 am and 11:59 am, and an 'all-day pattern' in which coffee is consumed at times scattered throughout the day.
Specifically, 36% of the 40,725 NHANES participants were morning types, 16% were all-day types, and the remaining 48% were non-coffee drinkers. However, health care workers were more likely to be coffee drinkers: 61% and 62% of the 772 women and 691 men who participated in each survey were morning types, 19% and 18% were all-day types, and the remaining 20% were non-coffee drinkers.
They then analyzed the relationship between coffee consumption patterns and health and mortality data extracted from medical records and found that people with a morning pattern had a 16% lower risk of death from any cause and a 31% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to non-coffee drinkers, while people with an all-day pattern had no significant difference from non-coffee drinkers.
For morning-type people, moderate or slightly more coffee consumption is more beneficial, with the relationship between average daily intake and the reduction in mortality risk being 15% for those with 0 to 1 cup or less, 16% for those with 1 to 2 cups or less, 28% for those with 2 to 3 cups or less, and 21% for those with more than 3 cups. Statistically, the results for those with 1 to 2 cups or less, those with 2 to 3 cups or less, and those with more than 3 cups were evaluated as significant. On the other hand, no significant relationship was found between coffee intake and mortality risk for those with a day-long pattern.
The graph below shows the difference between morning-type patterns (blue line) and all-day patterns (red line) when the risk of death from all causes (left) and cardiovascular disease (right) is plotted on the vertical axis and coffee intake on the horizontal axis. It visually shows that morning-type people who drink more coffee tend to have a greater reduction in health risks.
'This is the first study to examine the impact of coffee drinking timing and habits on health,' said Dr. Chi. 'Our findings show that it's not just whether or how much coffee you drink, but also when you drink it that matters.'
Experts believe that the reason drinking coffee in the morning may be better for you is because it influences your
Drinking coffee in the afternoon or early evening could disrupt the circadian rhythm of sympathetic nervous activity, Professor Thomas F Lüscher of the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital in London said in an editorial on the study in the European Heart Journal.
In fact, it's well-known that many people who drink coffee throughout the day suffer from sleep disorders, and it's also been pointed out that the caffeine in coffee suppresses the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin.
In other words, although drinking coffee has positive effects on your health, if you drink it late in the day and it disrupts your daily routine, there's a good chance that these benefits will be negated.
'There's strong evidence that drinking coffee is good for your health, but it's probably best to drink it in the morning,' said Lüscher.
Related Posts:
