Caffeine: When to Actually Stop

Most caffeine advice is a version of “don’t drink it too late,” which never tells you what too late means. So here is an actual number, where it comes from, and why the way you feel after an evening coffee is a bad guide to what it did to you.

In a 2013 trial, four hundred milligrams of caffeine taken six hours before bed reduced objectively measured sleep by more than an hour — and the participants did not notice. We cover why falling asleep was never the thing at risk, why your friend can drink espresso after dinner and sleep fine, and a two-week experiment worth running on yourself.

SOURCES:

Drake, Roehrs, Shambroom & Roth — Caffeine effects on sleep taken 0, 3, or 6 hours before going to bed, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2013;9(11):1195-1200

Pharmacokinetics of Caffeine: A Systematic Analysis of Reported Data — Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2021

Written and fact-checked by Brent Burgess. Narration uses a synthetic voice model of his own voice.

This episode is general education and is not medical advice. Sleep problems can have serious underlying causes — talk to your doctor before changing medication, supplements, or treatment.