“Don’t speak to me until I’ve had my coffee” has become a running joke, but for many it’s a reality.
Without a morning brew to help perk someone up ahead of a day, they may be irritable or tired. However, Cognitive Psychologist Dr Eamon Fulcher has found the best time to have the first coffee of the day, on average, is 9.24am – not in the first moments of rolling out of bed.
In a study supported by UK coffee company Thrive London, Dr Fulcher has produced the morning coffee formula, which considers the average wake time, the tendency to snooze or scroll before rising, the body’s natural morning biochemistry, and the demands on employees to both hit the day running and be productive throughout the day.
Based on someone’s alarm going off at 7am, Dr Fulcher says a 9.24am coffee will help make the most of the body’s natural cortisol production cycle.
“When you wake up, your body naturally produces a surge of cortisol – a hormone that boosts alertness for free,” he says.
“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 (nine minutes), you rise at 7.09am. Add 135 minutes and your ideal first coffee time is 9.24am. The caffeine then peaks around 10.09am, just as cortisol subsides. Therefore 9.24am is the ideal time.”
Dr Fulcher’s formula is T =X + (Z x 9) + C – 45. ‘T’ represents the time for coffee, ‘X’ is the alarm’, ‘Z’, is the number of snoozes per alarm taking nine minutes, ‘C’ is the cortisol drop off time of 180 minutes, while 45 is the number of minutes for caffeine to take full effect.
Based on this, for someone who sets an alarm for 6am but snoozes three times, the formula would read:
T=6 + (3 x 9) + 180 – 45.
This would make their ideal time for coffee 8.33am, as it would be 153 minutes after their alarm first goes off.
Managing Director of Thrive London, Clare Hancock, partnered with Dr Fulcher on the study. She says waiting to have a coffee until you are at work could have a double positive effect.
“With our recent study revealing 82 per cent of employees say good coffee improves their mood and productivity, we’re encouraging both employees and employers to embrace this new research and have their coffee a little later – for those productivity and happiness gains,” she says.
“Just by waiting until you get to work, you can enjoy both the ritual and camaraderie of making a lovely coffee with your colleagues whilst getting the most from your coffee.”
