Walker: Evening coffee can cut deep sleep by 20% to 40%
Dr. Matt Walker · #131 Matthew Walker: The Power of Sleep · Feb 22, 2022 · at 30:22
Sleep researcher Dr. Matt Walker details laboratory findings on how evening caffeine consumption degrades deep sleep brainwave architecture.
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“What you don't realize is that caffeine can actually decrease the amount of deep sleep that you're getting, stages three and four. And in fact, what we found is that even just one to two cups of coffee in the early or late evening can decrease the amount of your deep sleep anywhere between 20 to 40%. Now, for a spot of context, I'd have to age a healthy adult by probably somewhere between 10 to 15 years to produce that kind of a reduction in deep sleep and we've seen that with just a hundred milligrams of caffeine, which is essentially a standard single cup of dripped, healthy brewed coffee that can blunt the electrical quality of your deep sleep and strip away almost 30% of those electrical deep sleep brainwaves in the first cycle of your sleep at night.”
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