Ep 266 | Timing Your Coffee

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today I want to talk a bit about health. I want to focus on our health. We're going to talk about our morning routine, which has been a common theme here at No Days Off over the past year. And we're going to specifically discuss coffee and how you should maybe consider delaying your caffeine intake by an hour, 2 hours, maybe even beyond. So at the No Days Off Podcast, we are firm believers in starting your day off with a specific morning routine that works for you. I've shared in the past, in past episodes, I believe we need to get up and have sun first thing in the morning. I think that you'll see a boost in cortisol levels. I think we have to hydrate. And we've talked about hydrating with lemon and, and Himalayan salt in the water. I think you've got to get some movement in. I am a big fan of, of the cold, of the cold plunge. Now I know I go a little bit more aggressive than most, but I believe a morning ritual is a step required to maximize success throughout the day. At some point though, the vast majority of us, will introduce caffeine in the morning. For some, you are getting out of bed and you are going right to the coffee maker and pushing go. For others, you know, maybe you get up or you shower, whatever, but you, but you get coffee pretty quickly. And that's because you're probably a little groggy when you wake up. Andrew Huberman though, Dr. Huberman, who has an amazing podcast around just science in general and how the body works. He's a neuroscientist. He tells us, he said about a year ago when I was listening to him, that we should actually be waiting 90 to 120 minutes to drink our first cup of coffee. 90 to 120 minutes, an hour and a half to 2 hours after waking up. I remember hearing that and thinking, wow, I don't think a lot of people do that. I mean, the vast majority of people are consuming caffeine or coffee. How do I know that? Well, because it's one of the top commodities that's traded in the world. I think it's a top 5 commodity traded, meaning that the coffee bean is trading at really high levels because all of us are consuming it. I'd venture to guess 9 out of 10 people every morning have some sort of caffeine or coffee. So knowing that Huberman's telling us don't have it right away. Instead, wait 90 to 120 minutes. I heard that about a year ago. And then a few months ago, I heard it again. When Mel Robbins, another, another podcaster, interviewed another neuroscientist who said we need to wait at least an hour. I think she said 45 minutes to an hour. Delaying the intake of caffeine apparently has major benefits. So here's the scoop. Usually in the morning, usually in the morning, we start our day a little groggy. We start our day, you know, not with the highest energy. Get out of bed, whether you slept enough or maybe you underslept, which call it what it is, it's a big problem for many of us. You may only feel half human until you've had that morning cup of coffee. But Huberman would tell us if you could hold off on the caffeine until at least an hour and a half after you've gotten out of bed, you'll find yourself feeling stronger in the afternoon. Why does he say this? This comes down to the way caffeine interacts with this compound in our body called adenosine. Maybe you've heard of adenosine. Again, like I said, I heard it about a year ago. I heard it again a few months ago. I started testing, you know, timing of caffeine, and here I am sharing this message with you today. So you've got this chemical in your body, in your brain, called adenosine. Now, of course, I'm not the scientist here, so go check what I'm telling you, but this is my research. Okay? So adenosine is what makes us feel sleepy. So our body builds adenosine throughout the day. That's what makes us sleepy. It makes us more tired until we actually go to bed. And as we sleep, the adenosine in our body starts to clear out. So that when you— ideally, when you wake up, you're feeling a bit more alert. but here's the reality. Most of us do not sleep enough. And therefore there's some lingering adenosine when you wake up. In other words, your body hasn't burned it all off. It still exists. Now here's the catch. Pay close attention. That adenosine is going to keep you tired until your body rids itself of, of the adenosine that it's had from sleeping. And it will eventually start building adenosine all over again. For that particular day and night. But we've got to get rid of this lingering adenosine. The less time that you've spent asleep, the more adenosine likely remains. Now, when you consume caffeine in the mornings, here's what it does. It blocks your adenosine receptors. So this means that you probably didn't sleep off all of your adenosine overnight, and therefore when the caffeine is consumed and it blocks the adenosine receptors, there will be some lingering adenosine that's more or less trapped. Your body did not dispose of that adenosine. The caffeine acts as a receptor, meaning it's going to block the continued kind of detox, if you will, of the adenosine. You're gonna have that caffeine. That's how caffeine works. It blocks these adenosine receptors. So when you delay the coffee, what you're actually doing is allowing that adenosine to clear the system. Then you have your coffee, you're using the natural highs of the morning, the cortisol, the sun, all of these things have that natural, you know, wake-up period. Your body clears the adenosine and then you have your caffeine. But if you have that caffeine before adenosine clears, Here's what happens. An hour or two later, when that coffee or caffeine wears off, that lingering adenosine will return in full force. And again, it's gonna make you feel tired. So you trapped it by having caffeine. That coffee, if you have your coffee at say 7:00 AM, that coffee wears off by 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 AM. Now that adenosine that you trapped Makes you tired all over again. So what do you do? Well, you end up having more coffee and the cycle repeats. Now you start having coffee later in the day and what happens? It messes with your sleep cycle. So we've got to stop the slump, right? So here's what you do. Shortly after waking up, your body experiences a spike in cortisol. It helps clear out that adenosine. I want you to get up in the morning and tomorrow I want you to hold off on having that coffee. If you are in fact a person that immediately moves towards the coffee, instead, go about your morning. It's going to be easier than you think. I know you're hearing me and many of you are like, God, I can't survive without my coffee. I promise you, you can get up, get out in the sun, have some water, do some activities. Right? At least make it an hour, ideally a little longer before you introduce the coffee. There's going to be a lot of different things that happen here, right? Number one, we're going to clear out that adenosine, but you're also going to have, believe it or not, a more enjoyable coffee experience because your body, your body is going to really want to have that coffee. And the impact of that caffeine, now that the adenosine has been cleared out, is going to be more powerful and is going to last, and there's a really good chance you don't have to introduce caffeine later in the day because the adenosine effect— the adenosine had an opportunity to clear before you had the caffeine that blocked the receptor. So by waiting to consume the caffeine, you're giving your body enough time to clear out the adenosine, and that's so it doesn't come back and haunt you once all that caffeine wears off. Now keep in mind, if you stop having that caffeine later in the day, you know, this cycle that continues to run, you— odds are you're going to sleep better, right? You're going to sleep better and the cycle will change. And maybe you start getting, you know, going to bed a little earlier and all the benefits that come of that, that we— I don't think we have to go into today. They could all start to start to really play out. So on that note, I want to challenge everybody here. If you are a regular coffee drinker like me, I want you to postpone, delay the intake of that coffee to at least 60 minutes, maybe even 90 or 120 if you could get there in the morning. You get up, hydrate, go get, go get some sun, move around, do whatever it is you do, and then introduce coffee later. Try it out. Try it out. Tell me how it goes. I think that the research would show that if you can build this new habit, it's going to pay dividends. That's all I have for you today. The No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.