In fact, everyone drinks coffee the wrong way. You might drink a cup right away when you’re next to your bed or when you shower and start working. But are you doing this because it’s a habit or because you really need it? When is the best time to drink coffee?
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It should come as no surprise that it is the caffeine in coffee that has a major impact on our bodies. After you take that first sip and delight your taste buds, caffeine stimulates your adrenal glands.
Your adrenal glands are where the stress hormone cortisol is released. The caffeine starts working after a few minutes and cortisol is released in your body. After 15 to 20 minutes this puts your body in a kind of ‘survival mode’, a heightened state of consciousness. This is why you feel a boost in energy and focus from coffee.
People immediately have a negative association with the stress hormone cortisol. Stress isn’t good, is it? But a little stress helps us stay alert and come up with solutions quickly. “Cortisol increases the sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, improves your brain’s use of glucose, and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues,” explains the Mayo Clinic.
So a little cortisol can actually be beneficial for your productivity. But the fact that you produce the stress hormone after drinking a cup of coffee is also the reason that you can’t just pour coffee all day long. Too much cortisol is hard on your nervous system and your heart and blood vessels.
Best time to drink coffee
For most, coffee is a habit. We drink it as soon as we are next to our bed or at least immediately when we go to work. There is nothing wrong with that in itself. Especially not if that makes you happy. But is it also the best time when we look at our productivity?
Most people are most productive in the morning. Then it might make more sense to use that boost in alertness and focus if we really need it. The best time to drink a cup of coffee is when you feel you can use that boost, instead of first thing in the morning.
Research suggests that this is likely between 10:00 am and 11:30 am and in between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. is. This is when the natural levels of cortisol in our body drop on their own.
Also good to know: it takes about 2.5 hours for the energy-boosting effects of caffeine to start to wear off. So instead of drinking all your cups of coffee in a limited time frame, it’s best to spread out your cups.
Even more important than that boost in focus and energy, is that you enjoy your cup of coffee. So drink it especially if you feel like it.
