Drinking coffee in the morning is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and overall mortality compared to drinking coffee all day, according to a comprehensive study published in the European Heart Journal.
The research, which tracked the coffee consumption habits and health outcomes of over 40,000 adults, suggests that the timing of coffee intake may play a critical role in its health benefits.
Coffee Timing and Health
People who drink coffee in the morning are less likely to die from cardiovascular disease and have a lower overall risk of death compared to those who drink coffee throughout the day, according to a study published on January 8 in the European Heart Journal.[1]
The research, led by Dr. Lu Qi, a professor and HCA Regents Distinguished Chair at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, explored the potential link between coffee consumption timing and heart health. Dr. Qi explained, “Research so far suggests that drinking coffee doesn’t raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it seems to lower the risk of some chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Given the effects that caffeine has on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day when you drink coffee has any impact on heart health.”
Detailed Study Design and Demographics
The study included 40,725 adults taking part in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2018. As part of this study, participants were asked about all the food and drink they consumed on at least one day, including whether they drank coffee, how much, and when. It also included a sub-group of 1,463 people who were asked to complete a detailed food and drink diary for a full week.
Researchers were able to link this information with records of deaths and cause of death over a period of nine to ten years.
Health Benefits for Morning Coffee Drinkers
Around 36% of people in the study were morning coffee drinkers (they primarily drank coffee before midday), 16% of people drank coffee throughout the day (morning, afternoon, and evening) and 48% were not coffee drinkers.
Compared with people who did not drink coffee, morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to die of any cause and 31% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease. However, there was no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared to non-coffee drinkers.
Morning coffee drinkers benefitted from the lower risks whether they were moderate drinkers (two to three cups) or heavy drinkers (more than three cups). Light morning drinkers (one cup or less) benefitted from a smaller decrease in risk.
Potential Mechanisms and Future Research Directions
Dr. Qi said: “This is the first study testing coffee drinking timing patterns and health outcomes. Our findings indicate that it’s not just whether you drink coffee or how much you drink, but the time of day when you drink coffee that’s important. We don’t typically give advice about timing in our dietary guidance, but perhaps we should be thinking about this in the future.
“This study doesn’t tell us why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. A possible explanation is that consuming coffee in the afternoon or evening may disrupt circadian rhythms and levels of hormones such as melatonin. This, in turn, leads to changes in cardiovascular risk factors such as inflammation and blood pressure.
“Further studies are needed to validate our findings in other populations, and we need clinical trials to test the potential impact of changing the time of day when people drink coffee.”
Expert Commentary and Broader Implications
In an accompanying editorial[2] Professor Thomas F. Lüscher from Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, London, UK said: “In their study published in this issue of the European Heart Journal, Wang et al analysed the time of the day when coffee is consumed in 40 725 adults from the NHANES and of 1463 adults from the Women’s and Men’s Lifestyle Validation Study.
“During a median follow-up of almost a decade, and after adjustment for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee intake, the amounts of cups per day, sleep hours, and other confounders, the morning-type, rather than the all-day-type pattern, was significantly associated with lower risks of all-cause mortality with a hazard ratio of 0.84 and of cardiovascular mortality of even 0.69 as compared with non-coffee drinkers.
“Why would time of the day matter? In the morning hours there is commonly a marked increase in sympathetic activity as we wake up and get out of bed, an effect that fades away during the day and reaches its lowest level during sleep. Thus, it is possible, as the authors point out, that coffee drinking in the afternoon or evening disrupts the circadian rhythm of sympathetic activity. Indeed, many all-day drinkers suffer from sleep disturbances. In this context, it is of interest that coffee seems to suppress melatonin, an important sleep-inducing mediator in the brain.
“Overall, we must accept the now substantial evidence that coffee drinking, particularly in the morning hours, is likely to be healthy. Thus, drink your coffee, but do so in the morning!”
References:
- “Coffee drinking timing and mortality in US adults” by Xuan Wang, Hao Ma, Qi Sun, Jun Li, Yoriko Heianza, Rob M Van Dam, Frank B Hu, Eric Rimm, JoAnn E Manson and Lu Qi, 8 January 2025, European Heart Journal.
DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae871 - “Start your day with a morning coffee!” by Thomas F Lüscher, 8 January 2025, European Heart Journal.
DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae823
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google and Google News.
6 Comments
Except for a singular mention, which the casual reader may have passed over, the association is not with caffeine. The effect of morning vs all-day also applies to decaff, and you have to drill down to the supplemental table S4 to see a striking pattern: the disparity is greater for decaff morning drinkers vs decaff all-day drinkers as opposed to morning caffeinaters vs all-day caffeinaters.
Thanks for pointing this out, I missed it and I suspect the vast majority of others did as well. Cheers!
What are the risks for those cultures who drink tea like we drink coffee, at all times of the day?
I wonder if the correlation with the all day coffee drinkers having less benefit has anything to do with repeat or overconsumption and with possible overconsumption of other not as healthy stuff such as sugar/fats etc and if that is why the benefit seems to decrease? Not as in the more frequent you drink decreases your risk based on the coffee itself, but if you have a habit to overconsume coffee all day long, there may be other items being over consumed causing those study participants to have adverse health issues.
Correlation is not causation. As with most nutritional and dietary research, this study seems to be incomplete, and the framing of the hypothesis leads to coffee being the causative agent for any changes observed. The conclusion drawn is that a cup of coffee in the morning is responsible for the observed effect, although the authors point to disruption of the circadian rhythm as a potential cause for the higher mortality among all-day consumers. This seems to be bolstered by the data from decaf drinkers.
The study should be repeated, to ascertain whether it is the coffee (caff or decaf) consumption, or whether it is indeed the undisturbed circadian rhythm that is responsible. A comparison between people with similar sleep patterns, with morning coffee drinkers as a test group vs non-coffee drinkers would make sense.
How about people who can’t have coffee because they can’t have caffeine?