The first thing I do when I get to work every morning is grab a large cup of coffee. I never seem to be able to get my day started without it.
Even on the weekends, I turn on my coffee pot before I do anything else. Because coffee has a lot of health benefits, it’s not really a problem when I grab my first cup of joe in the morning.
The problem is that every time I get to the bottom of my mug, I run for a refill. If you’re anything like me (always found with a cup of coffee in hand), you probably think that the constant caffeine rush is boosting your efficiency and making you more alert.
You may have noticed that sometimes, no matter how much coffee you drink, you just don’t feel any more energetic than you did in the first place.
A new study explains that there’s one simple way to maximize the effectiveness of your coffee: only drink it at a certain time of day.
Drinking coffee can be a great way to boost your energy — lots of people drink it to jumpstart their mornings or get them past the 2 p.m. slump at work.
If you’ve ever noticed that your energy, efficiency, and alertness don’t seem to have changed much after your cup of coffee, you’re not alone.
One study sought to find why coffee is so beneficial sometimes, but not other times.
What they discovered is that coffee’s energy benefits totally depend on the time of day when you consume it.
To conduct the test, the study organized two groups of college students: one group would drink coffee early in the morning (around 6 a.m.), while the other group would drink coffee in the afternoon (around 2 p.m.).
All the participants in the study thought they were drinking caffeinated coffee, but half of each group were actually given decaf.
The students then reported how they felt before and after drinking coffee, and the researchers were able to come to a conclusion.
It turns out that drinking coffee early in the morning gives you the most beneficial results.
The caffeine boost that coffee offers helps most when you’re feeling the least like yourself, such as early in the morning when you haven’t had time to wake up and get moving.
While the morning coffee drinkers saw significant benefits after drinking their coffee, the afternoon coffee drinkers didn’t notice much change.
According to this study, caffeine is only helpful when you’re not at your optimal performance level.
If you immediately reach for the coffee when you roll out of bed in the morning, congrats! You’ve probably been getting more benefits than people who grab a coffee to refuel midday.
If you’re someone who is super awake and alert in the morning and just drink coffee out of habit, you can probably stop, since it might not have much of an effect on you!
I always thought that coffee had the same effect no matter what time of day I drank it. Now I know I should just have a cup early in the morning if I really want it to improve my energy.
If you’re an avid coffee drinker, please SHARE this article with your family and friends!
