It May Be Time to Give Up Your Afternoon Coffee, Study Says

If you’re a coffee lover, you might want to rethink when you drink your favorite cup of joe. A new study published in the European Heart Journal on January 8 suggests that drinking coffee in the morning could significantly reduce cardiovascular disease and mortality risk.

Those who drank coffee in the morning had a 31% lower risk of dying from heart disease compared to those who drank none at all. Morning coffee drinkers were also 16% less likely to die from any cause when compared to non-coffee drinkers. But those who drank coffee all throughout the day didn’t see the same benefits.

Keep reading to learn more about the study’s findings and how your morning java can improve your health.

How Was the Study Conducted?

The research team, led by Lu Qi, MD, Ph.D., a research professor at Tulane University, analyzed data from more than 42,000 U.S. adults who participated in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey or the Women’s and Men’s Lifestyle Validation Study.

Each participant included in this specific study shared at least seven days of a food diary, which described their eating and drinking habits, and details of their mortality were found in the National Death Index. Researchers tracked the participants’ coffee drinking habits, including when they consumed coffee and how much, and linked this data to mortality rates over a nine to 10-year period. Coffee consumption included any coffee beverage, whether caffeinated or decaffeinated.

Participants were sorted into three groups—the all-day coffee drinkers, the morning coffee drinkers and those who did not drink coffee. The no-coffee group had an average age of about 38 years, while the morning and all-day groups had an average age of 50 and 51 years, respectively. All three groups had an almost even split between men and women.

What Did the Study Find?

Those who drank coffee primarily in the morning had significantly lower risks of cardiovascular disease-related death and all-cause mortality compared to non-coffee drinkers. Morning coffee drinkers benefited whether they were moderate drinkers having two to three cups or heavy drinkers having more than three cups.

What’s interesting is that when participants drank their coffee seemed to be the most critical factor in the study. People who drank coffee throughout the day (morning, afternoon and evening) did not show a risk reduction compared to non-coffee drinkers.

“Our findings indicate that it’s not just whether you drink coffee or how much you drink, but the time of day when you drink coffee that’s important,” said Qi in a press release. “We don’t typically give advice about timing in our dietary guidance, but perhaps we should be thinking about this in the future.”

Why Drink Coffee in the Morning?

So why is coffee better to drink in the a.m.? The researchers suggest that drinking coffee in the afternoon or evening may disrupt your circadian rhythms and melatonin production, a hormone that helps regulate sleep. Disrupting this cycle could lead to increased inflammation, higher blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors. Conversely, drinking coffee in the morning when your body is naturally more active and alert may support its natural wake-up process.

Thomas Lüscher, MD, Ph.D., a cardiologist from Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, wrote in an accompanying editorial piece, “In the morning hours, there is commonly a marked increase in sympathetic activity as we wake up and get out of bed, an effect that fades away during the day and reaches its lowest level during sleep. Thus, it is possible, as the authors point out, that coffee drinking in the afternoon or evening disrupts the circadian rhythm of sympathetic activity.”

Sympathetic activity refers to the sympathetic nervous system, which manages the body’s “fight or flight” response. If you’ve ever found yourself lying awake at night and regretting the cup of coffee you had late in the evening, you’ve probably experienced the effect caffeine can have on your sympathetic nervous system. Restricting your coffee drinking to the morning could help you avoid those java regrets in the future.

The Bottom Line

Drinking coffee in the morning rather than throughout the day could reduce your risk of heart disease and lower your all-cause mortality risk. Whether you’re a casual coffee drinker or a heavy consumer, switching to a morning-only coffee habit could be a simple yet effective way to support your heart health. Speak with your healthcare provider or a cardiologist if you have any questions or concerns regarding your cardiovascular health.