What We're Reading Now

Coffee… Not Now, But Soon

13 September 2016

Eden read Why You Shouldn’t Drink Coffee In The Morning and was excited to learn a new, practical way to stay alert during the work day.

Tags: balance, circadian rhythm, coffee, eden read, mindfulness, productivity

For me, and for many people I’m sure, coffee is more than a habit; it’s part of the morning ritual. If the article by Fast Company had advised me to give up my morning cup altogether (as the clickbait title suggests), I probably would have stopped reading. Luckily the advice, which cites a 2009 study on the hormone cortisol, encourages the reader to be aware of his or her body’s circadian rhythm in order to increase the efficiency of caffeine intake.

In other words, mindfulness + coffee? Sign me up.

Allison has written about circadian rhythms and productivity in the past, and the same concept can be applied to coffee breaks. Our bodies produce cortisol throughout the day, which helps us to feel awake. As the article explains, “the peak production time of cortisol is between 8 and 9 a.m. If you're a morning coffee drinker, this means you're consuming caffeine at a time when your body is essentially naturally caffeinating itself.” Inefficiencies arise when we drink coffee during these peak times, including a decreased sensitivity to the effects of caffeine. To get the biggest boost from your coffee, you should wait until your cortisol production slumps, which for most of us occurs in the late morning and again in the midafternoon.

Mindfulness comes in because everyone’s circadian rhythm is a little bit different and too often we reach for a cup of coffee first thing in the morning before stopping to ask if we really need it right then. Instead of grabbing an early cup, I challenge you to slow down, observe how you feel, and get in a routine of drinking coffee at the opportune moment. After taking a week to observe myself in the morning after a good night’s rest, I consistently found that I don’t really need coffee until about 10 a.m., an hour after my normal time. I committed to postponing my morning cup by just an hour and have done so for a month now. While this difference may seem too small to be significant, I found it makes a big difference in maintaining my energy level throughout the day.

The Fast Company article has a helpful infographic that goes into more detail about cortisol, circadian rhythms, and the best time to drink coffee for very early risers. (Hint: it’s still not as soon as you wake up.) I hope you find the information as interesting and useful as I do. Happy coffee drinking!

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