Coffee might not be what prevents you from sleeping soundly

Good news for coffee lovers and jitterbugs; drinking caffeine throughout the day might not be responsible for keeping us awake at night.

According to a Swiss study published in the journal Nature in February, a moderate amount of caffeine in the morning and afternoon does not actually impair your sleep at all.

The study examined 20 male caffeine users over 10 days. Each participant was given a 150-milligram caffeine pill three times a day, a placebo pill three times a day, or was part of a withdrawal group. Those who were in the withdrawal portion of the study at first followed the same routine as those consuming actual caffeine: 150 milligrams of caffeine three times per day. On the ninth day, their pills were switched over to the placebo pills. The participants went through three rounds of 10-day testing. Each testing group was randomized, but every person who participated went through each phase.

The results? Though some morning and afternoon caffeine wasn’t as bad for sleep as commonly believed, the study did find that when you had your caffeine mattered. Researchers discovered that, when sleeping, the brain experienced symptoms of caffeine withdrawal if the subject had ingested caffeine continuously during the day and into the later afternoon and evening. The subsequent withdrawal triggered inflammation that could hurt sleep patterns.

How should you consume caffeine?

If we consume caffeine regularly during the daytime, this might not reduce the depth of sleep or mute the signals our bodies give us to tell us it’s time to go to bed, according to Carolin Reichert, one of the study’s authors. The brain most likely adapts to the daily presence of the stimulant.

The flip side of the coin, however, is that we might experience early withdrawal symptoms when we sleep, because the caffeine we’ve gotten so used to in our bloodstream has been metabolized and starts getting low. The consequences of these nightly withdrawal symptoms are not yet known.

Bottom line: The benefits of drinking coffee seem to outweigh the negatives. Recent studies suggest that regular coffee consumption can help reduce your risk for cardiovascular issues by up to 12% over time. The key thing to remember, as always, is do it in moderation. Johns Hopkins Medicine suggests you limit your consumption to four to five cups per day.

Findings have not yet been published regarding the same study on humans assigned female at birth.