Coffee is generally amongst the very few things that come to mind for most busy bees. The robust aroma and the rich bold taste certainly makes waking up before 12 PM more than tolerable. However, turns out that coffee must be consumed at specific periods of time for one to attain its full benefits – unfortunately, waking up and gulping down a hot cup is not one of such righteous times.
The reason why consuming a cup of coffee first thing in the morning tends to be less effective is because our bodies naturally produce the chemical cortisol to help us deal with waking up – the first hour of waking up is when this chemical is produced on a large level. While one would presume that mixing high levels of caffeine with a naturally occurring energizing chemical would act as a catalyst is the process, the reaction in fact dulls the effects of caffeine – and raises our tolerance to caffeine thus making us more addicted.
That’s however not it; there are other times of the day where our cortisol levels naturally peak – these are conveniently also the times most of us would usually go for our 2nd, 3rd, or 4th serving. These times are between 12-1 PM and 5:30-6-30 PM; it is encouraged that you consume your caffeine out of these time periods. Since cortisol levels are affected by our body’s Circadian Rhythms, the levels of cortisol are affected by the sunlight and not too much by the time you wake up – however that initial one hour upon waking up is an exception to this rule as cortisol levels increase 50% regardless of what time you wake up.
For another great way of effectively using coffee, try doing the coffee nap. In coffee nap, you consume a cup of coffee and immediately take a 10-20 minute nap. During the nap, your adenosine levels (adenosine is a chemical that makes you tired from being awake and only depletes upon sleeping) will drop. Since coffee takes about half an hour to digest, the caffeine will kick in right when you wake up. Cortisol awakening response does not affect you when you merely take a nap!
Check out the clip posted below courtesy of the Youtube channel AsapScience and make sure to check out more of their fantastic material!