Coffee and Sleep
People see coffee as the villain of sleep. Is this fair?
Coffee and quality sleep both promote wakefulness - they’re on the same side.
But its more than that… read on below to find out why drinking coffee can actually help your sleep.
Insomnia is the difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep or early morning waking. It’s a deep-rooted sleep problem, occurring frequently during the week, and with a significant impact on how you feel and function during the day.
When you have insomnia, it’s common to try everything to try and sleep better - not going out in the evenings. Skipping the gym. Going to bed early. Sometimes missing work, and nearly always, stopping coffee. Soon, all that’s left is your insomnia. And you have nothing else to think about.
And the more you think about sleep, the less likely it is to happen.
Morning coffee is not going to make any noticeable difference to your sleep at night, and it brings back a sense of normality. Bringing back coffee puts you back in the driving seat of your life, so you aren’t being pushed around by insomnia.
Restarting coffee can be an excellent way to start rebuilding the parts of your life that insomnia has taken away.
(It also makes you feel more awake, which really helps if you aren’t sleeping well.
So if you’ve stopped drinking coffee due to insomnia, make Sunrise your next cup!
Read on to find evidence-based ways to improve your sleep (that don’t involve giving up coffee).
Sunrise Coffee
Praline ~ Raisin ~ Maple Syrup
SCA 84.5 | YELLOW CATUCAI | NATURAL PROCESS | SINGLE ORIGIN | 100% ARABICA | 1050-1150M
A natural processed Brazilian with a full body and sweet notes of praline, raisin and maple syrup. Perfect for supporting your daytime alertness while you work on better sleep.
Freshly roasted to order
Available in beans or ground
Free delivery on orders over £25
Poor sleep Vs Insomnia
Perfect sleep doesn’t exist (unfortunately)
In fact, even sleeping badly twice a week can be considered normal.
Insomnia is a little different. Insomnia is a specific sleep disorder where you struggle to fall asleep, or stay asleep, occurring at least three times a week and with a significant impact on how you feel and function during the day.
Why it matters
The ways to improve poor sleep are different to the ways we improve insomnia.
To improve poor sleep, we use something called Sleep Hygiene (awful name). Sleep hygiene is the general good advice to help you sleep better, and more consistently. It looks at strengthening some of the systems that control your sleep, preparing your mind and body for sleep, and making the bedroom the best possible environment for sleeping in. You can read more about sleep hygiene here:
The big issue is here: sleep hygiene does not work for insomnia!
Insomnia is specific sleep disorder and has a specific set of treatments, the most effective of which is called Cognitive Behavioural therapy for insomnia, or CBTi.
It happens too often that people suffering with insomnia get given sleep hygiene advice. Not only does this not work, it can actually makes insomnia worse.
The Better Sleep Online Insomnia Course
The gold standard treatment for insomnia is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi), which we have put into an online course that you can work through at your own pace. There are videos and articles, and you can ask us questions as you go along.
What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for insomnia?
CBTi is the gold standard treatment for insomnia and recommended as first line by the NHS and the British Sleep Society. It teaches you to fall asleep quicker and stay asleep.
It is a talking therapy that look at how your thoughts and your actions influence your sleep, and involves strengthening your drive for sleep, rebuilding the link between your bed and sleep, and managing anxious thoughts or a racing mind.
We deliver CBTi through 1:1 appointment and though our online insomnia course. More information on CBTi is in this video here:
What is sleep effort?
You have probably noticed that when you try too hard to sleep, it gets harder to do. This is Sleep Effort, and its one of the main drivers of insomnia.
But sleep effort can get a little complicated…
Sleep effort is very sneaky in how it gets established in your life, and bizarrely, its often in the form of well meant advice for sleeping better (with sleep hygiene advice often being the chief offender).
Taking a very regimented and intentional approach to sleeping better eg zero screen time, long sessions of breathwork, hot baths, cold baths, infrared therapy, hypnotherapy tracks, lavender pillow spray, magnesium supplements. Stopping coffee can actually make the problem worse.
Its not to say these things can’t help sleep, but when approached in this way, they generate stress and worry, become sleep effort, and stop you from sleeping.
Restarting coffee can be a powerful way to build in some flexibility with your sleep. And this slightly looser approach can really make insomnia a lot better.
The Sleep Effort Trap
The harder you try to sleep, the more difficult it becomes. Cutting out coffee often becomes part of this trap – the more you change your day to manage poor sleep, the more your day becomes focused on sleep.
🧠 Evidence-Based Approach
Our sleep clinic challenges conventional wisdom with science-backed insights. Morning coffee has no impact on nighttime sleep when timed correctly.
⚡ Support Daytime Function
The point of sleep is supporting your wakefulness. When sleep is poor, coffee helps maintain the alertness you need while you work on the real solution.
🔄 Break The Cycle
Stop making your entire day about managing poor sleep. Our approach focuses on evidence-based treatments like CBT-I, not endless lifestyle restrictions.
FAQs
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Yes. Coffee promotes wakefulness.
Caffeine, the active ingredient, temporarily blocks a chemical called adenosine, which is what gives you the drive to sleep.
This can be helpful in the morning (maybe less helpful right before bed)
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Morning coffee will not make a noticeable difference to your sleep at night.
If you have coffee in the evening, most people will find it a little more difficult to fall asleep.
You can get around this, by not having coffee too close to bed.
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Good question!
There is a big variation on this between different people.
There is no good quality research, but most studies suggest that your sleep is more likely to be disrupted if you have coffee within 8 hours of bed.
THis doesn’t mean your sleep will be ‘ruined’, it just means you might find it takes a little longer to nod off, or you may wake up a little in the night.
But remember, humans are built to be resilient, and we can cope with a night or two of bad sleep (so if you REALLY want an Italian-style espresso after your dinner, then that is allowed!
Reference: The effect of caffeine on subsequent sleep: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Gardiner et at, Sleep Med Review, 2023
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There is a big range between people.
We look at something called the ‘half-life’. This is the time it takes a person to break down half of a substance.
For caffeine, the range is from 1.5hrs in some people, to 9.5 hours with others. Most of this difference is genetic, but is also influenced by being on other medications, smoking or if you are pregnant.
This is why some people can drink coffee in the evening ok, but others might stop earlier on.
Reference: Brachtel and Richter, Absolute bioavailability of caffeine from a tablet formulation. Journal of hepatology, 1992.
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Energy drinks often have significant amounts of caffeine in.
Tea has caffeine in, including green tea.
You will also be surprised to hear that decaf coffee and tea also has a significant amount of caffeine in (its more ‘less caff’ than ‘decaf’)
The other one to keep an eye out for is chocolate.
Its worth being mindful of these if you have them before bed.
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No, there is quite a range.
Caffeine is produced by coffee plants to act as a natural insect repellent. At lower altitudes there are more insects, so coffee beans produced at sea level often have more caffeine.
Higher altitude coffee are usually less caffeinated.
You can also reduce the level of caffeine from coffee.
‘Decaffeinated’ coffee still have a significant amount of caffeine in!
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Most people who have a coffee right before bed will have some disruption to their sleep, but the ext to which this happens will vary on the individual.
This could mean you take longer to fall asleep, or you wake a bit more overnight, or you find your sleep a bit less refreshing.
You also might not notice much difference at all.
As humans, we are built to be resilient and we can handle a night or two of poor sleep. So even if you do sleep less well because of an evening coffee you will likely be ok!
Reference: The effect of caffeine on subsequent sleep: a systematic review and meta-analysis Gardiner et at, Sleep Med Review, 2023
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