The best time to drink coffee
Coffee has its ideal hours. It is important to know that the caffeine in coffee increases levels of cortisol, the stress hormone that we all naturally manufacture in the adrenal cortex, a gland located above the kidney.
During the day, we all have a cyclical manufacture of cortisol following a circadian rhythm.
The natural cortisol peaks are at 8-9am, 12-1pm and 5.30-6.30pm in the afternoon. During these hours you already have cortisol circulating in your blood and you don't need to drink coffee.
Cortisol is responsible for increasing alertness levels in our body and it is not a good idea to drink coffee when we are at that time of the day when you already produce a natural cortisol peak (see graph), because then the coffee will have an additive effect with the cortisol produced that can alter the rhythm of sleep and disturb the balance of the nervous system.