Drinking coffee only in the morning may help people live longer compared to drinking the beverage throughout the day, a new study suggests.
Researchers from Tulane University analyzed dietary and health data from more than 40,000 U.S. adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2018. The team identified two coffee-drinking patterns: morning-only and all-day drinkers.
The early-in-the-day drinkers — those who drank their coffee between 4:00 a.m. and noon — had a 16% lower chance of dying from any cause compared to those who didn’t drink coffee, according to results published Tuesday in the European Heart Journal.
Coffee drinkers also had a 31% lower risk of dying from heart disease compared to non-coffee drinkers, the study found.
No matter how many cups of coffee the morning drinkers had, or whether they preferred decaffeinated coffee, the risk of death was still lower, according to the study.
However, those who kept drinking coffee into the afternoon and evening did not show a lower risk of death.
To explain their findings, the researchers suggested morning coffee may better align with the body’s natural sleep and wake cycles. It may also reduce inflammation, which tends to be higher in the morning, and, in turn, lower heart disease risk.
Experts say another reason for the lower risk of death may be that morning coffee drinkers have healthier lifestyles, including better diets and taking part in exercise. Factors including shift work or wake-up times could also play a role.
Dr. Lu Qi, the study’s senior author and interim chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Tulane University, added that additional studies — including with people from other countries — would be needed to confirm the results, as well as clinical trials.