The Best Time to Drink Coffe and Live Longer

Coffee and Lifespan

Drinking coffee in the morning, rather than throughout the day, is linked to a lower risk of death.
The life-prolonging effect may be due to both caffeine and the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant plant chemicals found in coffee.

Take your coffee in the morning

A study published on January 8, 2025(1) used data from 42,188 adult Americans to investigate if there was any link between the time they drank coffee and mortality.

The coffee drinkers clustered into two groups, the morning drinkers (36%) of the subjects, and the all-day drinkers (14%). The subjects were followed up for more than 9 years and the death toll and cause was recorded.

The morning drinkers had a significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality (16% risk reduction), and cardiovascular-related deaths (31% risk reduction) compared to the non-morning drinkers.

The 2015-2020 U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend drinking coffee moderately, for a healthy lifestyle. However, this study found that drinking more coffee was also significantly associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality in morning drinkers, but not in all-day drinkers.

Drinking coffee in the morning may be more strongly associated with a lower risk of mortality than drinking coffee later in the day. Xuan Wang et al. (2025)(1)

How does coffee timing affect mortality?

The authors propose two ways by which coffee could affect your lifespan.

1. Circadian Rhythm Disruption

Drinking coffee later in the day reduces the peak night-time production of melatonin by up to 30%. It seems that low melatonin levels are linked to higher blood pressure levels, more oxidative stress levels, and therefore a higher risk of heart disease. The sleep-disturbing effect is only caused by caffeinated coffee, so caffeine does not fully explain the study's findings.

2. Coffee's phytochemicals

Coffee has many plant-based chemicals that act as anti-inflammatory agents (polyphenols). Pro-inflammatory cytokines and inflammation markers in the blood follow a circadian rhythm with a morning peak that tapers off during the day reaching its lowest level around 5 PM. So morning consumption of coffee provides a shot of anti-inflammatory bioactive compounds right at the peak of inflammation. This hypothesis is valid for both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffees, as both retain their antioxidants and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals.

Prior Studies

A 2017 study using data from 521,330 subjects of the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study, followed up on average for almost 16½ years, a study (2) found that:

Coffee drinking was associated with reduced risk for death from various causes. Marc J. Gunter et al. (2017)(2)

Those who were among the highest 25% of coffee intake had "lower all-cause mortality" (12% risk reduction in men and 7% in women), and "digestive mortality" (risk reduction of 59% in men and 40% in women).

Women had a risk reduction in: vascular disease mortality (22%), and cerebrovascular disease mortality (30%) but a higher risk of ovarian cancer mortality (+31%).