By waiting 90 minutes after waking to consume caffeine, you allow your adenosine levels to rise slightly, making the caffeine more effective at blocking the receptors and keeping you alert.
During the first 90 minutes after waking up, Mr Upton recommends trying to avoid caffeine. "Ninety minutes after waking your brain function has woken up and the stress hormones have all changed and everything's starting to come into daytime mode," he said.
According to his advice, the best time to drink your coffee may be one hour after waking up. Cortisol-derived alertness and concentration tend to peak 30 to 45 minutes after waking up. Therefore, waiting about an hour will give you the "true caffeine effect."
Indeed, according to experts, drinking coffee on an empty stomach right after waking up can interfere with your cortisol levels and actually leave you feeling even more tired later on in the day.
Huberman recommends delaying coffee consumption for a minimum of 1.5 to 2 hours after waking in order to maximize energy, reset your Circadian Rhythms, and improve sleep.
Caffeine can disrupt your sleep up to six hours after consuming it, leading to an hour or more lost in rest, one study found. So if you want to start winding down and going to bed at 9 p.m., drinking coffee after 3 p.m. is a bad idea. Some health experts recommend people stop drinking coffee as early as 2 p.m.
Turns out the best time to drink coffee might not be first thing in the morning, but an hour after you wake up. This is because in the hour after you wake up, your body's production of cortisol is at one of its three daily peaks, according to researchers who published a small but intriguing clinical study.
It is also thought that early morning caffeine might interfere with your normal morning cortisol production and stress your adrenal glands if you consume too much. After cortisol peaks at around 8:30, it begins to decline, but then it spikes again around noon.
For healthy individuals, having a cup of coffee on an empty stomach is unlikely to cause any significant harm. However, you know your body best. If you find that your body is sensitive to caffeine, consider pairing a snack with your coffee to help with digestion.
4. How much caffeine is too much? For healthy adults, the FDA has cited 400 milligrams a day—that's about four or five cups of coffee—as an amount not generally associated with dangerous, negative effects.
According to a recent study, drinking coffee after waking up in the morning could be seriously bad for your health. Researchers have warned that having black coffee before breakfast after not having a proper night of sleep could impair control of your blood sugar levels.
“Wait at least an hour [after you wake up] to get your cup of joe,” AsapScience advises, “and your body will be optimally ready to go.” That is, if you don't hit the snooze button and nod off in the meantime.
Everyone experiences natural cortisol boosts throughout the day, with a daily peak between 8 and 9 AM for most people. This means that caffeine consumed during this time is largely wasted because you're already at your natural alertness peak (even if you don't always feel like it). Read: Learn To Taste Coffee!
Caffeine and Adenosine Receptors:
By waiting 90 minutes after waking to consume caffeine, you allow your adenosine levels to rise slightly, making the caffeine more effective at blocking the receptors and keeping you alert.
One way is to take a week off from coffee every month. That's what Ashley Richmond, the founder of Momentum Habits, does. She recommends taking the first week of the month off so it's easy to remember. If that sounds too harsh, try the slower approach.
Drink coffee/tea over an longer period of time, to slowly release the caffeine into your body instead of bombarding your body with too much caffeine at once. If you slowly consume caffeine, your body will also slowly clear it out of your system, and you won't crash as hard.
Coffee sends a signal to your stomach to release gastrin. This kicks off a wave of contractions in your gut called peristalsis. Peristalsis moves food and liquid through the intestines. For some people, this leads to a trip to the bathroom in just a few minutes.
“One thing to keep in mind is that drinking coffee on an empty stomach can result in more rapid absorption, and thus a greater biological effect of your cup of coffee, such as alertness (which is desirable) and jitteriness (which may not be).” And as far as the increased digestion time, there is some truth to that.
Digestive Problems: The production of stomach acid may be stimulated by drinking coffee on an empty stomach. The body's digestive system is significantly disrupted by the production of stomach acid, leading to symptoms like indigestion, bloating, nausea, etc.
Drinking your coffee after 10am, however, will ensure your cortisol levels have dipped sufficiently to ensure your caffeine has an impact. According to Dr Brewer, "the length of time caffeine stays in your body varies widely", with the time taken for blood levels to fall by half ranging broadly from person to person.
Instead, it is suggested that you drink your first cup of coffee between 9:30 and 11:30 am, when your cortisol levels are dropping. Try drinking water and getting some sunlight first thing in the morning.
“After brushing, it is safe to drink water and coffee immediately since the minerals in toothpaste have strengthened, remineralized, and rid the teeth surfaces of bacteria build up,” Dr. Huang shares. “However, for the best taste, you may want to wait 10 minutes to avoid toothpaste-flavored coffee or water.”
The sense of being "wired" from too much caffeine consumption can make sleep initiation hard. It can also make it hard for you to want to go to sleep. Caffeine consumption reduces a metabolite of melatonin which you need to sleep properly, which is why too much caffeine can cause you to have a restless night.
When's the best time to stop drinking water? It's often recommended that you should stop drinking water two hours before going to bed. This way, you're not flooding your body with extra fluids that may cause an unwanted trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Drinking water first thing in the morning immediately helps rehydrate the body. Your six to eight hours of sleep is a long period to go without any water consumption. Drinking two or three glasses of water right when you wake up is a good way to rehydrate your body quickly.