Drinking coffee before going to bed will delay the body clock?

Washington, September 16 (Reporter Lin Xiaochun) Coffee drinkers should be careful: if you drink two espressos three hours before going to bed, the body clock will be delayed for about an hour. This shows that most people really should not drink coffee at night, otherwise they will easily become "night owls" who do not sleep at night and do not wake up in the morning. The report was published in the American Journal of Scientific Translational Medicine on the 16th.

Researchers at the University of Colorado recruited two men and three women to participate in the trial. During the 49-day study, five people took a placebo or a caffeine pill three hours before bed, which contained the same amount of caffeine as two espresso servings.

The researchers regularly tested participants' saliva levels of melatonin, an important regulator of the body's biological clock. The results showed that compared with taking a placebo in low light, taking a caffeine pill in low light delayed the body clock by 40 minutes, while being exposed to sleep-disrupting bright light for 3 hours delayed the body clock by 85 minutes. If the strong light plus caffeine tablets, then the body clock will be delayed by 105 minutes.

Kenneth Wright, a professor at the university who led the study, said in a statement: "this is the first study to show that caffeine-the world's most widely used psychoactive drug-has an effect on the body's biological clock." it provides new insights into the effects of caffeine on human physiology. "

Wright said the result is a further illustration of not drinking coffee before going to bed, but it can also benefit some travelers, and drinking coffee at the right time can help people with jet lag adjust their biological clocks. This result is also of great significance for the development of treatments for circadian rhythm disorders.