Productivity Hack: When To Have Your Coffee for Better Performance
Understanding Chronobiology:
Chronobiology is all about understanding our body's natural rhythms. Our bodies have a built-in clock that runs for about 24 hours. This clock controls essential things like when we sleep, when hormones are produced, and even when our digestive system works best. When we follow this natural rhythm, it can support our health and natural flow. But, it’s human to also naturally mess up this internal clock with things like staying up late with artificial lights, travelling across time zones, or eating at odd times. There's a link between our body's clock and our metabolism, so changes in one can affect the other. Also, our genes can influence our health and our reaction to food.
The Connection Between Meal Timing and Health:
Researchers have been investigating the relationship between meal timing and health outcomes, and the findings are enlightening. Chrononutrition studies how food, metabolism, meal timing, and your body's internal clock connect.
Your circadian rhythm affects many parts of your body's functions, like how you digest food, when you feel hungry, and how your metabolism works.
The connection between food and your body clock works in 2 ways:
Your body's clock affects how it deals with food at different times of the day.
On the flip side, when you eat can also influence and train your body's clock, although not as much as exposure to light does.
The timing of your meals can impact how your body processes food, and your body's daily changes can influence your food choices.
Why wait 90 minutes before your morning coffee?
Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., advises waiting 90-120 minutes after waking up before having caffeine. So, we wanted to look at the science:
In the morning, our body experiences a rise in cortisol levels, known as the Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR). Cortisol is a stress hormone that boosts alertness.
Having caffeine during this cortisol spike can reduce the effectiveness of both cortisol and caffeine, making your morning coffee less energising.
Caffeine works by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain. Adenosine promotes sleepiness, and its levels increase throughout the day.
Waiting 90 minutes after waking allows adenosine levels to rise slightly, making caffeine more effective at blocking receptors and keeping you alert.
Maintaining a healthy circadian rhythm is vital for good sleep and wakefulness.
Consuming coffee right after waking can disrupt the natural cortisol rhythm, potentially leading to poor sleep and morning grogginess.
Waiting 90 minutes before caffeine helps maintain your natural cortisol pattern, improving sleep quality and wakefulness.
Experts think that as we learn more about chrononutrition, we might use this knowledge to lower the chances of metabolic diseases. However, we'll need to await further research results for now.