If you’re a coffee lover, chances are you’ve reached for a cup of joe immediately after waking up.
Well science is here to tell you that’s a bad idea.
Everyone has what’s called a circadian clock, and it controls your hormonal cycles. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week your circadian clock dictates everything you do: sleeping, eating, etc.
Cortisol, a key circadian clock hormone, wakes you up. Ever unwillingly woken up at 8:00 am Saturday ready to roll? That was probably cortisol kicking you in the pants to get out of bed. That’s because cortisol levels spike between 8:00 and 9:00 am.
This means between 8:00 and 9:00 am your body is naturally supplying energy.
If you partake in a cup of joe during this cortisol spike, you’re lessening caffeine’s effect on your brain. In fact, consuming caffeine during a cortisol spike leads your body to build a tolerance to caffeine faster, alongside diminishing its effects.
Instead of drinking coffee right when you wake up, wait a little. If you have coffee from 9:30 – 11:30am you supply your body with needed caffeine during a cortisol lull.
Additional cortisol spikes occur from 12:00-1:00pm, and 5:30 – 6:30pm. So stick to coffee between 1:30 and 5:30 in the afternoon.
Check out this awesome video by AsapSCIENCE for more info: