The optimal time to drink coffee isn't when you normally have it

MSN ^ | June 04, 2025 | Staff

[Red Badger]

Maybe coffee doesn't need to be the very first step in our morning routines.

While it's often associated with wakefulness, experts claim there may be benefits to holding off on that cup of joe for a different time of day.

Cortisol, a stress hormone, is highest in our body right as we wake up, according to Julia Zumpano, a registered dietitian with the Cleveland Clinic Center for Human Nutrition.

From there, she said, it begins to decline naturally throughout the day.

Caffeine is a stimulant, so if it's consumed (by drinking coffee, for example) when cortisol is high, that can increase stress levels that were already high at the beginning of the day.

"The [cortisol] decline is different for everyone but typically occurs one-and-a-half to two hours after you wake," Zumpano said.

That's the best time to have coffee, Zumpano said.

[Magnum44]

In other words, when you have coffee, you shouldn't drink it?

[Clutch Martin]

I like it around 1700

[Twotone]

This actually works for me. It takes me at least an hour to feed the cats, clean the pans, do sundry other things before I’m ready to sit back with a hot cup. I’ve worn off all that cortisol by then. :-)

[Georgia Girl 2]

I’m still drinking coffee two and half hours after I get up. 😉

[KarlInOhio]

How about this: all federal funding for studying coffee is revoked and every researcher involved in spending it is permanently prohibited from any future federal grant money.

How many billions of dollars have been spent on inconclusive, contradictory and statistically unsound research on everyone's favorite brown beverage? Spend your time on curing cancer.

[Macoozie]

Wake up, drink water, get some movement/exercise . . .
THEN
have some CovFeFe

[Red Badger]

I drink coffee practically till supper!..............

[reed13k]

So I am doing it right for the most part as my first cup comes after I’ve had a shower, dressed, and packed my stuff for the office and heading out the door...which is roughly 45 min-an hour (30 if I’m in a rush).

[Red Badger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5vGdmTrbNA

[Georgia Girl 2]

I’m finishing my third cup right now. 😉

[telescope115]

Your routine closely resembles mine. The cats DEMAND their breakfast and won’t leave me alone until I give it to them. At least I get the coffee makers ready the night before, so I just have to turn them on. TWO coffee makers- my loves her flavored coffee, hazelnut, and I just like mine black.

[Grampa Dave]

I Fell into this pattern.

On 1 April, I took an unplanned trip/fall and basically only did minimal exercises like getting out of bed.

My family doctor and my RN wife got me into morning and early afternoon PT exercises on 1 May.

My daily coffee consumption is now about half of what I consumed before via my morning to noon coffee.

[Red Badger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5vGdmTrbNA

[Grampa Dave]

That, now, basically works for me.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Coffee reduces stress and keeps the people around me safe.

[mythenjoseph]

I drink coffee for 3’4’s of the day and now summer temperatures are here I consume quite a bit of Iced Coffee, favorite drink in the world to me (besides water.)

[Red Badger]

😁..........................

[Psalm 73]

Four cups between 0500 and 0700, and another four between 1300 and 1500.

Rinse. Repeat.

[SkyDancer]

Nobody stands in the way of my morning coffee. Nobody.