Do you ever wonder what would be the best time to drink your morning coffee?
In humans, from the moment we wake up, our body begins the secretion of the hormone cortisol from the adrenal glands. Yes, our body comes equipped with it’s own innate ‘natural caffeinating’ system! This increase after awakening, a phenomenon termed the cortisol awakening response (CAR), appears to be a distinct feature of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. For our medical nerds, recall that the suprachiasmatic nucleus or SCN in the hypothalamus controls our circadian clock and sleep-wake cycle. The latest research has shown that having coffee immediately after waking up can actually blunt our natural cortisol levels.
Therefore, if we are drinking caffeine at a time when our cortisol concentration in the blood is already at it’s peak, we may actually be consuming caffeine when it is not needed. It is believed that this phenomenon may cause the body to build a quicker tolerance to coffee and eventually lead you to feel very tired a few hours later — the crash! It is now theorized that waiting to drink coffee at least an hour after you wake can help to maximize your effectiveness through being more mindful of your natural cortisol levels.
For all of our coffee lovers out there, what are your experiences?
Special note: I personally have began abstaining from coffee consumption in the first hour of my mornings & have noticed a considerably positive result! Looking forward to hearing from you all!
Written by: Navpreet Singh Badesha
©03/12/2018 All Rights Reserved.
Photo credit: @coffeeandanatomy (on Instagram)
Inspired by: Alexander Amir
This research was published in the National Library of Medicine:
Article One, Article Two, Article Three, Article Four
