Many rely on cups of coffee to boost energy levels, increase focus and promote alertness throughout the day, but it’s important to stop drinking it at a certain time.
A survey by Statista Consumer Insights found that more than half of coffee drinks consume three or more cups per day, and having that caffeine kick too late can have disastrous effects on your sleep.
Best time to stop drinking coffee
Sleep expert Dr. Catherine Darley told The Focus that ideally, you should stop drinking coffee eight hours before bed as it can take that long to metabolize. That’s the time needed for the caffeine to be processed and used by your body.
So, if you want to go to sleep at 9pm, you need to be drinking your last coffee just after lunchtime, at 1pm. If you go to bed at 10pm, you can have your last coffee at 2pm, 11pm would be 3pm and so on.
However, that’s just an estimate and the time it takes for caffeine to leave the body can vary between people. It depends on a variety of factors, such as age, weight, medication, smoking and the food you have eaten.
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A report in the National Library of Medicine explains that the average half-life of caffeine in healthy individuals is about five hours. That is the amount of time it takes for the amount of caffeine in your body to reduce by half.
By those estimates, it would take 10 hours for the caffeine to completely leave your system, but the report notes that caffeine’s elimination half-life may actually range between 1.5 and 9.5 hours depending on the person.
A good night’s sleep is really important to give your body and brain time to recover from the day, allowing you perform better make better decisions, MedlinePlus says. Good sleep will also help you feel more alert, optimistic, and get along with people better, while also preventing disease.
Most adults need seven to eight hours of sleep a night for good health and mental functioning, but some need up to nine. Drinking caffeine too late can prevent you from getting enough rest.
Caffeine clearance can get worse with age
“One thing people may not realize is that our bodies ability to clear caffeine is less effective as we age,” Darley added.
She explained that one of her clients found having chocolate chip cookies in the evening was enough caffeine to disturb her sleep. Another person, a man in his mid-50s, found that having two cups of coffee before 11am disturbed his sleep.
“If people suspect caffeine may be interfering with sleep, a good test can be eliminating or cutting back after noon for 10 days, and note what impact that change has on sleep,” she suggested.
For most people, it is not harmful to consume up to 400mg of caffeine a day, MedlinePlus explains, which is four cups of standard coffee. Tea also contains caffeine in smaller amounts, as do kola nuts which are used to flavor colas and cacao pods, which are used to make chocolate.
If you do eat or drink too much caffeine, it can cause a variety of health problems including: Restlessness and shakiness, insomnia, headaches, dizziness, fast heart rate, dehydration, anxitey and dependency.
Dr. Catherine Darley is a Naturopathic Sleep Expert with more than 20 years of experience solving people’s sleep problems. She has a BS and BA in Health Sciences and founded Skilled Sleeper, which offers courses to help people transform their sleep.
