As the weather turns and darker mornings emerge, commuters heading to the office this autumn may want to rethink the way they take their morning coffee.
New research has found that, while many enjoy a cup as soon as they wake up, 9.24am is actually the ideal time.
Cognitive psychologist Dr Eamon Fulcher has developed the ‘Coffee A.M. Formula’ to pinpoint the perfect, science-backed moment to enjoy your morning brew. It considers the average wake time, the tendency to snooze – or doomscroll – before rising, the body’s natural morning biochemistry and the pressure to start the day alert and productive.
Dr Fulcher who conducted the study with coffee company Thrive London, says: “Put simply the best time for first coffee is = X + (Z x 9) + C – 45. When you wake up, your body naturally produces a surge of cortisol – a hormone that boosts alertness for free. Having coffee at this point wastes its stimulating effect and may even cause stress.
“The goal is to time coffee so that its peak effect coincides with the natural dip in cortisol that happens later in the morning. If your alarm is set for 7:00am and you snooze once (9 minutes), you rise at 7:09. Add 135 minutes and your ideal first coffee time is 9:24am. The caffeine then peaks around 10:09am, just as cortisol subsides.”
The formula to find your perfect coffee time is:
T = X + (Z × 9) + C – 45
Where:
- T = time for your first cup of coffee
- X = your alarm time
- Z = the number of snoozes or 9-minute doomscrolling sessions before getting up
- C = 180 minutes (your body’s natural cortisol drop-off time)
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