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Does a single cup of coffee at dinner alter the sleep? A controlled cross-over randomised trial in real-life conditions
Nutrition & Dietetics, 06/29/2012
Lloret–Linares C et al. – Even a single cup of caffeinated coffee consumed before bedtime in real–life conditions causes a deterioration in the quality of sleep in caffeine–sensitive subjects.
Methods- Sixty–three healthy men and women, who considered themselves to be caffeine sensitive were included in a double–blind, cross–over trial, randomised to receive either caffeinated coffee containing 90 mg of caffeine, or, as control, a dose of decaffeinated coffee containing 4.5 mg caffeine, taken after dinner.
- The primary outcome measure was the degree of sleep disturbance, scored on a visual analogue scale, ranging from 0 (excellent sleep) to 100 (very disturbed sleep).
- Ancillary criteria were patients' reported estimate of sleep latency, and how often the subjects reported waking.
- Mean age of subjects was 30.5 ± 12 years.
- The quality of sleep was significantly worse with caffeinated (mean 30.8 ± 22.7) than with decaffeinated coffee (mean 19.5 ± 16.9), P = 0.001.
- Caffeinated coffee also significantly increased the sleep latency (mean difference 17 ± 31 minutes, P < 0.001) and the frequency of waking (mean 1.3 vs 0.8 episodes in the night, P = 0.006) compared with decaffeinated coffee.
