Wait to Caffeinate–5 Benefits of Postponing Your Morning Brew

Uncover the morning magic of timing your coffee just right for enhanced energy, mood, and health.

Asking the Magic Question involves eliminating the pain points in your life by making small choices ahead of time. Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock

Imagine a morning where you delay your first coffee, not out of necessity, but for a promise of something better.

Emerging research suggests that this beloved wake-up call might be prematurely timed. Postponing that first sip of coffee could lead to a day filled with more energy and better health.

Borrowed Energy

In a world where more than 2 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day, this morning ritual is more than just a habit—it’s a global phenomenon. For most, it’s the essential energy kick-start to our day.

However, neuroscientist Andrew Huberman argues that coffee doesn’t generate additional energy. Instead, it cleverly borrows it from our future selves. “There’s no way to create more energy in your system,” he explained in a podcast. “What you’re doing is you’re changing the timing in which the sleepy signals and the more energetic signals are arriving.”

Caffeine operates not by creating an energy surge, but by concealing fatigue symptoms. It effectively inhibits brain chemicals that indicate tiredness. Thus, we don’t acquire new energy. We postpone feeling tired. While this postponement has short-term benefits, it’s essential to understand that the post-coffee energy is essentially “borrowed” from later in the day.

Grasping this concept is key to maximizing the benefits of drinking coffee. Properly timing our cup of coffee can enhance its positive effects without depleting our innate energy resources. The goal isn’t to depend on coffee for energy but to strategically use it to bolster our inherent alertness and productivity.

Proper timing of your morning brew can help you to:

1. Avoid Afternoon Crash

Regular coffee drinkers often encounter a drop in energy in the afternoon. This phenomenon, known as the afternoon crash, is widespread, but its cause is not widely understood.

At the core of this drop in energy is adenosine, which plays a crucial role in our daily rhythm of sleep and wakefulness. Adenosine is a chemical in our brain that encourages rest. It builds up during the day, reaching its highest level when we feel most tired. Caffeine works by blocking the effects of adenosine, which is why it helps us to stay awake and feel less tired.

“Caffeine essentially hijacks the adenosine receptors. When these receptors are blocked, the natural sleep-inducing effects of adenosine are neutralized, which is why we feel more awake after a cup of coffee,” Dr. Kelvin Fernandez, an internal medicine physician at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, told The Epoch Times.

Typically, people consume caffeine within the first half-hour after waking, leading to an immediate sense of alertness. However, this is often followed by a “dramatic dip in their overall levels of energy”—the so-called afternoon crash, Mr. Huberman said.

This slump is linked to the body’s delayed response to adenosine levels initially concealed by caffeine. By delaying caffeine consumption until the body naturally rids itself of adenosine, one can sidestep this afternoon downturn and enjoy more consistent energy throughout the day.

Mr. Huberman recommended completely purging your system of adenosine before having caffeine. Morning sunlight is crucial in this process, helping to reduce lingering adenosine. Physical activity also accelerates this reduction. Thus, postponing your coffee until after these activities can yield a more robust and enduring energy lift, avoiding the afternoon crash.

2. Boost Natural Alertness

Finding the right time for that first cup of coffee could be the key to enhanced alertness, thanks to our body’s natural cortisol rhythm. Cortisol, dubbed the “stress hormone,” is crucial for managing stress and regulating bodily functions such as metabolism and immune response.

Our cortisol levels naturally peak in the first hour after waking, helping us to start our day alert and ready. However, the timing of coffee drinking in relation to this cortisol spike is critical. Evidence suggests that waiting to have coffee after this peak can improve its alertness-enhancing effects.

Registered dietitian Trista Best emphasized the importance of this delay. “Delaying coffee intake in the morning can help prevent an amplified cortisol spike, which is associated with the body’s stress response,” she told The Epoch Times.

Mr. Huberman supports this view. “This is a simple performance-enhancing tool—which is to stack caffeine on the tail of that early cortisol peak,” he said. This timing ensures that the caffeine aligns with the body’s natural rhythms, optimizing its energizing effects without compromising hormonal balance.

“By syncing coffee consumption with the body’s cortisol patterns, you can optimize the energizing effects of caffeine without compromising the natural hormonal fluctuations crucial for overall health and well-being,” Ms. Best said. This approach preserves the stress response’s effectiveness and promotes balanced wakefulness throughout the day.

3. Enhance Sleep

Caffeine and sleep quality share a complex relationship intricately linked to circadian rhythms. Before artificial light and caffeine became widespread, human activities followed the rhythm of day and night—active by day, sleepy by night, with occasional naps. Mr. Huberman highlighted the fact that caffeine’s arrival enabled us to divorce ourselves from this natural cycle.

Caffeine disrupts the circadian rhythm, concealing tiredness and shifting sleep patterns. Notably, caffeine’s quarter-life is about 12 hours. For instance, 25 percent of caffeine taken at 11 a.m. still affects you at 11 p.m., impacting sleep onset and quality. That means drinking it too late can affect sleep.

But delaying morning coffee a bit is also key to maintaining a healthy circadian rhythm. It allows your body to balance cortisol and adenosine, providing steady day-long energy. Aligning caffeine intake with your natural alertness cycle reduces the need for afternoon caffeine boosts.

This approach helps to avoid afternoon fatigue and ensures that the caffeine effects diminish by evening. A slight delay in your morning coffee supports a consistent circadian rhythm, improving sleep quality by minimizing caffeine in your system at night.

4. Balance Blood Glucose Levels

A recent study highlights the significant effect of morning coffee timing on blood sugar regulation, especially after a night of poor sleep. “Put simply, our blood sugar control is impaired when the first thing our bodies come into contact with is coffee, especially after a night of disrupted sleep,” study author James Betts, a professor and co-director of the Centre for Nutrition, Exercise, and Metabolism, explained in a statement.

Published in the British Journal of Nutrition, the study examined how sleep disruption followed by morning coffee affects glucose metabolism. The findings reveal that drinking strong black coffee before breakfast, particularly after disturbed sleep, can heighten the blood glucose response to breakfast by about 50 percent.

“Individuals should try to balance the potential stimulating benefits of caffeinated coffee in the morning with the potential for higher blood glucose levels, and it may be better to consume coffee following breakfast rather than before,” advised Harry Smith, who holds a doctorate in physiology, nutrition, and metabolism, was lead researcher of the study.

5. Improve Digestive Well-Being

Morning coffee timing can significantly affect digestive health, and delaying it until after breakfast offers benefits. A primary advantage is the lowered risk of acid reflux, often experienced by coffee drinkers.

Acid reflux, or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), characterized by stomach acid re-entering the esophagus and causing irritation, can be worsened by coffee, particularly on an empty stomach. Coffee’s acidity and tendency to relax the lower esophageal sphincter, which usually blocks acid ascent, aggravate this issue.

“Coffee stimulates gastric acid production. Consuming it on an empty stomach can lead to increased gastric irritation and a higher risk of acid reflux,” Dr. Fernandez explained.

Research in clinical gastroenterology and hepatology shows that drinking coffee, tea, or soda correlates with a higher incidence of GERD symptoms.

Additionally, the timing of coffee consumption affects digestion. “Coffee after a meal can aid digestion by stimulating the production of gastric acid, bile, and digestive enzymes, thereby enhancing nutrient breakdown and absorption,” Dr. Fernandez said.

Individual coffee tolerance varies—some experience no digestive issues—while others may feel discomfort even with small amounts. For those who are sensitive, postponing coffee until after breakfast is a straightforward method to enhance digestive health.

Finding the Sweet Spot: The Optimal Timing for Your Coffee

Identifying the ideal time for your first cup of coffee can maximize its benefits by syncing with your body’s rhythms. Experts suggest a 1 1/2- to two-hour wait after waking, to align with the body’s cortisol peak and boost alertness and metabolic regulation.

“If you can’t wait 90 minutes right off the bat, push it out by 15 minutes each day until you hit the 90–120 minute mark,” Mr. Huberman advised for those struggling to delay their coffee, as this gradual method helps the body to adapt smoothly to the new timing.

For those eager to drink coffee right after waking, Mr. Huberman proposes a compromise: “If you insist on drinking after waking, just drink half of it then and the rest an hour later. It will help offset that afternoon slump.” This approach balances immediate coffee enjoyment with the body’s energy needs.

On optimal coffee dosage, Mr. Huberman said: “Your body weight is a good measure by which you can measure a healthy dose of caffeine. One [milligram (mg)] to 3 mg per kg of body weight is the range in which caffeine can have positive effects without being overly anxious.” For a 150-pound person, the range would be 68 mg to 204 mg of caffeine, equivalent to a maximum of about two cups a day.

Caffeine affects individuals differently. Use these guidelines as a starting point, but let your body’s reactions—such as jitters, digestive issues, or sleep problems—inform your coffee habits.

Time your coffee to match your body’s rhythms, and adjust the amount to your tolerance and weight. This balance can enhance energy, mood, digestion, and sleep. Listen to your body to find your ideal coffee routine.