What Time of Day is Best to Drink Coffee?
If you enjoy a good cup of Joe in the morning, more power to you! But if you’re sipping that cup all day, that might not be great for your heart.
Recent research out of Tulane University found that morning coffee drinkers have a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and overall death versus those who drink it all day long. Details can be found in the European Heart Journal.
The study was led by Dr Lu Qi, HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and Professor at the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, New Orleans, USA.
Dr. Qi notes, "Research so far suggests that drinking coffee doesn't raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it seems to lower the risk of some chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Given the effects that caffeine has on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day when you drink coffee has any impact on heart health."
Participants
Over 40, 720 adults participated in the study, which was part of US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2018. Subjects were surveyed about the food and drinks they consumed on at least one day, including coffee, how much, and when. The research also included a sub-group of 1,463 people who were asked to complete a detailed food and drink diary for one full week.
Records of deaths and causes of death over nine to ten years were able to be extracted by the researchers.
Roughly 36% of people in the study were morning coffee drinkers (drinking coffee before midday), 16% of people drank coffee throughout the day (morning, afternoon and evening) and 48% were noncoffee drinkers.
Results
Morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to die of any cause and 31% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease compared with non-coffee drinkers. However, there was no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared to non-coffee drinkers.
Whether morning coffee consumers were moderate (two to three cups) or heavy (over three cups), they benefited from lower health risks. Light coffee drinkers (one or less cups) had a small decrease in risk.
Dr Qi noted: "This is the first study testing coffee drinking timing patterns and health outcomes. 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. We don't typically give advice about timing in our dietary guidance, but perhaps we should be thinking about this in the future.
Conclusions
"This study doesn't tell us why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. A possible explanation is that consuming coffee in the afternoon or evening may disrupt circadian rhythms and levels of hormones such as melatonin. This, in turn, leads to changes in cardiovascular risk factors such as inflammation and blood pressure.”
Additional research is needed to confirm the findings in other populations. Dr. Qi also advised that clinical trials need to evaluate the possible effect of altering the time of day when people drink coffee.
In an accompanying editorial Professor Thomas F. Lüscher from Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, London, UK said: "During a median follow-up of almost a decade, and after adjustment for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee intake, the amounts of cups per day, sleep hours, and other confounders, the morning-type, rather than the all-day-type pattern, was significantly associated with lower risks of all-cause mortality with a hazard ratio of 0.84 and of cardiovascular mortality of even 0.69 as compared with non-coffee drinkers.
"Why would time of the day matter? 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. Indeed, many all-day drinkers suffer from sleep disturbances. In this context, it is of interest that coffee seems to suppress melatonin, an important sleep-inducing mediator in the brain.”
There is substantial evidence that drinking coffee, especially in the morning hours is likely healthy.
Reference:
Xuan Wang, Hao Ma, Qi Sun, Jun Li, Yoriko Heianza, Rob M Van Dam, Frank B Hu, Eric Rimm, JoAnn E Manson, Lu Qi. Coffee drinking timing and mortality in US adults. European Heart Journal, 2025; DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae871