☕ Why caffeine isn’t the enemy

Plus, daylight saving time is this weekend!

View this email online Becky Harlan/NPR Hey y'all,  This weekend, what we gain in daylight, we'll lose in sleep. Sunday, March 12th marks the beginning of daylight saving time, which means we’ll lose an hour when the clocks spring forward at 2 a.m. Your evenings will be a little brighter, but you might wake up feeling groggier than usual on Sunday morning.  The thought of less sleep may have you reaching for another cup of coffee. If that's your first impulse, don't feel bad. Caffeine isn't the enemy. Plus, its joys are known to many – a 2022 survey reported that 75% of American adults consume caffeine at least once a day. In our recent episode on understanding caffeine, Dr. Ugonna Iroku says that caffeine actually has a lot of benefits. "It's thought that for every one cup of coffee you drink, there's a 3% decreased risk in arrhythmias or a dangerous heart rhythm." Plus, caffeine lowers your chances of developing Parkinson's disease, can help treat migraine headaches, prevents liver damage and more.  Listen to the episode Not all caffeine is created equally, though. Caffeine alone doesn't rot your teeth or lead to weight gain, but too much soda in your diet might. "Some drinks do have a lot of sugar and other contents that may not be helpful for you," says Iroku.  Along with all the different ways to consume caffeine, how people metabolize it differs too. Marilyn Cornelis, who studies nutrition and genetics with a particular interest in caffeine health, says that our appetite and tolerance for caffeine are written in our genetic code. Her research found "if an individual was genetically predisposed to metabolize caffeine very quickly, we found that they tended to consume more caffeine." So I might naturally be a one-coffee-a-day person, and you might be more the three-coffee type. Neither is good or bad, she says. "Our genetics are just different." Cornelis says that your body often already knows what it needs and will signal it to you. “Some people get really anxious with too much caffeine. So they naturally cut back.” This isn’t to say you can’t build up a tolerance to caffeine, just that caffeine impacts individuals differently.  With all its benefits, caffeine can still impact your sleep. The half-life of caffeine — meaning the time it takes for your body to eliminate half of the caffeine you consume — is about five to seven hours. Sleep researcher Matthew Walker says that if you have a cup of coffee at 4 p.m., half the caffeine may still be circulating in your system by the time you're ready to go to sleep. Dr. Iroku says a cup of coffee late in the day can increase the risk of insomnia and decrease your REM sleep.  So this Sunday morning, extra enjoy your first cup of coffee. But if the time change makes you feel groggy later in the day, maybe opt for a walk instead of an afternoon latte. A nap never hurts, either.  -Clare Marie Schneider, Producer, Life Kit   Newsletter continues after sponsor message Olivia Sun/NPR ☕ Caffeine Q&A 🧠 In a recent newsletter, we asked for your questions on caffeine, and we posed one of them to the experts. Here's what they said:    How can I cut back on caffeine without the headaches? Is that even possible? –Kristen Nolan, Denver, Colo. If you want to reduce your caffeine intake, you may experience withdrawal symptoms. But Dr. Iroku says the worst symptoms usually abate in around ten days. He says you can also minimize withdrawals by cutting back on caffeine slowly versus going cold turkey. To do that, Dr. Iroku cites this study, in which participants cut back on caffeine in a systematized fashion.  For example, if you normally drink four cups of coffee a day, for week one, you’d drink three cups a day. You’d cut down to two cups of coffee daily for week two. For week three, you’d drink only one cup of coffee a day. By week four, you’d drink half a cup of coffee a day. And by week five, he says you’d be down to 50 milligrams of coffee or caffeine a day. “Which ultimately ends up being about a third or so of a cup of coffee.”  Access Sponsor-Free Episodes Want to support our show? Try a subscription to Life Kit+ and get all the tips and tricks you love sponsor-free! Learn more at plus.npr.org/lifekit.  Learn More More from Life Kit on caffeine and sleep:  ☕️ Easy ways to level up your coffee game Whether you use a drip machine or pour-over, paper filters or French press, this episode will help you get to know what kind of coffee you like and how to make it a little better. 🌅 How to wake up early, even if you're not a morning person. Waking up at dawn with the bakers and the baristas may not be for everyone — especially night owls. Here are a few habits that can help you set yourself up for success at that first alarm. 🛏Sleep better with these bedtime rituals. How do you get a good night's sleep? Scientists weigh in on which rituals actually work.  🏃‍♀️ 5 tips to help you reset after the time change. No surprises here – your sleep is also impacted by your daytime routines. If you're trying to adjust to the time change or are just ready to change your sleeping habits overall, here are five things you can do during the day to sleep better tonight. 🥚🐣🐥🐤 We want to hear from you! Are you pregnant? Have you been pregnant? We’re working on an episode exploring how pregnant people navigate their identities as individuals while transitioning into parenthood.  How did being pregnant change how you saw or felt about yourself? How did being pregnant change how you relate to the world and other people around you? Send us a voice memo at lifekit@npr.org with the subject line “pregnancy” and we may feature your answers in the episode or on NPR.org. Be sure to include your name and location. The submission deadline is Friday, March 17th at 5 p.m. ET.  Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: LifeKit@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Daily News, Code Switch, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Life Kit emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy