Coffee Improves Your Mood – But Only If You Drink It At This Time

But these potential benefits have caveats. They seem to be capped at about two-and-a-half to three cups a day, for instance; coffee without full-fat milk and sugar seems more likely to prevent dementia and increase longevity than creamier, sweeter brews. 

And now, a paper recently published in the journal Scientific Reports has found that when you drink your coffee affects its possible mood-improving properties too. 

What time should I drink coffee if I want to improve my mood?

The researchers looked into whether (and when) caffeine might improve your mood.

Caffeine helps to block adenosine receptors (adenosine makes us tired and has also been linked to anxiety and depression).

So the scientists wanted to look at whether drinking coffee early in the morning, when people are often tired and groggy due to sleep inertia, made a difference to how beneficial caffeine was to their mood. 

They analysed data from two experience sampling method studies from Germany. These involve participants recording their experiences through questionnaires and surveys in real time. 

The studies, which took 15 and 29 days respectively and involved a total of 236 participants, recorded the time, caffeine intake, and emotional status of those involved. 

After using multilevel models to analyse the results, the researchers discovered that, “The association between caffeine consumption and positive [emotional] affect was strongest within the first 2.5 hours after awakening”. 

A small but noticeable increase in mood benefits was also noted when people drank coffee 10-12.5 hours after waking.

Time of caffeine consumption did not seem to influence the negative effects of coffee, either. 

Lots of research suggests morning is the best time to drink coffee

This paper is not the only one to find benefits to drinking coffee earlier in the day.

Research from the European Heart Journal found that, in comparison to people who didn’t drink coffee at all, morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to die of any cause and 31% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease.

But people who drank coffee throughout the day had the same risk as those who did not drink coffee at all. 

In an editorial that accompanied the paper, Professor Thomas F. Lüscher said that, “Overall, we must accept the now substantial evidence that coffee drinking, particularly in the morning hours, is likely to be healthy.

“Thus,” he added, “drink your coffee, but do so in the morning!”