Does Coffee Help You Focus?
The friend that motivates you each day!
Do you find yourself reaching for a coffee before starting a busy workday or important project?
How often do you wake up feeling tired or fatigued, and you turn to a cup of coffee to help you feel better and focus on your day ahead?
You are not alone! Most people agree that drinking a cup of coffee helps them to resolve these fatigued feelings and become more alert after drinking it.
Now, why is this? To put it simply, coffee is like your friend that brightens up a room whenever they walk in. Coffee wakes up your brain and tells it to focus and be attentive for the day ahead.
How does coffee do this? Let’s find out why!
What is a cup of joe?
Coffee gets its energizing reputation from one of its main components, caffeine.
Caffeine, in its purest form, is a stimulant. It directly stimulates the central nervous system, resulting in our brain’s release of a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine is the feel-good chemical of our brains, resulting in an energy boost. This is usually accompanied by a stabilization of emotions and improvements in mood as well.
Increased levels of mental alertness are a commonly reported symptom of caffeine consumption, as well as improved performance, be it at work or exercise performance. This is due to caffeine’s dual ability to block adenosine in the brain, the chemical compound that creates feelings of drowsiness.
It has been found that regular coffee drinkers are more likely to have higher cognition function as they age rather than just a short boost of energy and concentration. This is due to caffeine’s ability to improve an individual’s attention span and memory.
Increased ability to focus
Have you ever wondered why people gravitate towards coffee as a way to start their mornings?
Known as “nature’s stimulant”, caffeine is a naturally occurring chemical that gives our bodies what it often needs for an energy boost. To coffee drinkers benefit, caffeine is a key component in coffee! There are processes to decaffeinate coffee, but luckily it doesn’t affect the taste of the coffee beans. (link to John’s decaf blog)
If you’re anything like me, working on important projects or making big decisions are easier to do earlier in the day after I’ve had my morning cups (or pots) of coffee. Due to coffee’s cognition-increasing benefits, it helps to make decisions by resolving your feelings of exhaustion.
Increasing your ability to concentrate and improving mental alertness are key reasons for caffeine consumption, however, caffeine does not make you smarter (unfortunately!) and has no effect on the learning mechanics in your brain. Rather, it allows you to concentrate on the task at hand!
Coffee is a great drink to consume due to its performance-enhancing abilities. Whether you need to remember things from a morning meeting, handle and solve a crisis in your department or simply focus on your tasks that day, a cup of coffee is a great way to naturally receive a caffeine boost.
How much coffee is too much coffee?
Each individual is different right? Just as we all have a different genetic makeup, the amount of coffee one can consume in a day varies from person-to-person.
It is a generally accepted rule that the smaller the person, the less caffeine they need to feel the effects. It is also determined by how much coffee one consumes regularly. Someone who regularly drinks coffee will lose sensitivity to coffee, resulting in them needing to drink more to feel the desired effects.
It is important to note that while coffee is a great way to stay energized throughout the day, that it should not be used as a sleep replacement. The best thing for our brains to re-energize and stay alert is adequate sleep at night, but I’m not going to nag you about that!
When is the best time to drink coffee?
In our professional opinion, we could drink coffee all day. However, there are optimal times for consuming that will help to maximize your potential!
The majority of coffee drinkers enjoy a cup in the morning, as this helps them to wake up and focus on what is to be accomplished that day. Plus, is there any better smell than freshly ground coffee in the morning?
It takes approximately 15 minutes after consumption to begin to feel the effects of the coffee. Brewing and drinking the coffee 30 minutes before will allow the temperature to cool off just right for your enjoyment, and give your body time to begin metabolizing the caffeine.
Those long days at home or the office happen, and it is normal to desire a quick and healthy pick-me-up! Brew up your favourite roast from Road Coffee and re-energize to tackle the rest of your day.
Do you need some help choosing which roast is right for you? Take a scroll through our product collections page, try out our adventure box (you get 4 different samples) or reach out to us at info@roadcoffeeco.com or @roadcoffee on social media and we’d be happy to recommend the best coffee for you!
Author Jordan Calladine
