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How coffee after lunch could ruin your sleep
by JAMES CHAPMAN, Daily Mail
offee lovers should switch to decaf at lunchtime if they want to get a good night's sleep, scientists say.
Millions rely on a cup to get going in the morning, giving a vital energy boost and leaving them ready to face the day.
But having a similar pick-me-up later on can play havoc with sleep patterns, research suggests.
Experts have found that as well as being a stimulant, caffeine interrupts the flow of melatonin, the hormone that sends us to sleep at night.
Secreted by the pineal gland deep in the brain, it helps control body rhythms and tells our bodies when to sleep and when to wake.
Levels of the hormone normally start to rise about two hours before bedtime. Levels then peak between 2am and 4am, before falling again.
Researchers in Israel have found that caffeinated coffee halves the body's levels of the sleep hormone, according to a report in New Scientist magazine today.
Dr Lotan Shilo and a team at Tel Aviv University found that six volunteers slept less well after a cup of caffeinated coffee than after drinking the same amount of decaf.
On average, subjects slept fiveanda-half hours per night after drinking caffeinated coffee, compared with seven hours after decaf.
They took half an hour to drop off, twice as long as usual, and shifted around in bed twice as much.
The results also suggested that melatonin concentrations in caffeine drinkers were half those in decaf drinkers.
Caffeine blocks the process that drives melatonin production, the researchers say in a paper to be published in the journal Sleep Medicine.
Sleep expert Dr Maurice Ohayon, of Stanford University in California, said that because it can take many hours to eliminate caffeine from the body, he would tell coffee drinkers to switch to decaf after lunch.
How coffee after lunch could ruin your sleep
by JAMES CHAPMAN, Daily Mail
offee lovers should switch to decaf at lunchtime if they want to get a good night's sleep, scientists say.
Millions rely on a cup to get going in the morning, giving a vital energy boost and leaving them ready to face the day.
But having a similar pick-me-up later on can play havoc with sleep patterns, research suggests.
Experts have found that as well as being a stimulant, caffeine interrupts the flow of melatonin, the hormone that sends us to sleep at night.
Secreted by the pineal gland deep in the brain, it helps control body rhythms and tells our bodies when to sleep and when to wake.
Levels of the hormone normally start to rise about two hours before bedtime. Levels then peak between 2am and 4am, before falling again.
Researchers in Israel have found that caffeinated coffee halves the body's levels of the sleep hormone, according to a report in New Scientist magazine today.
Dr Lotan Shilo and a team at Tel Aviv University found that six volunteers slept less well after a cup of caffeinated coffee than after drinking the same amount of decaf.
On average, subjects slept fiveanda-half hours per night after drinking caffeinated coffee, compared with seven hours after decaf.
They took half an hour to drop off, twice as long as usual, and shifted around in bed twice as much.
The results also suggested that melatonin concentrations in caffeine drinkers were half those in decaf drinkers.
Caffeine blocks the process that drives melatonin production, the researchers say in a paper to be published in the journal Sleep Medicine.
Sleep expert Dr Maurice Ohayon, of Stanford University in California, said that because it can take many hours to eliminate caffeine from the body, he would tell coffee drinkers to switch to decaf after lunch.
