Never Have This for Breakfast to Avoid Crashing, Warns Sleep Expert

Britain is a nation of coffee lovers with 54% of the nation consuming at least one coffee per day – and with viral coffee hangouts popping up across cities in the UK which are becoming particularly popular among young people, the hashtag #coffeeaddict has had 14k posts in the past 120 days. With so many consuming coffee every morning, Martin Seeley, senior sleep expert at MattressNextDay, shares why you should avoid adding cream, sugar or syrups to your coffee if you want to avoid crashing energy levels and negative impacts on your sleep cycle.

His advice comes as a new study was published by Boston’s Tufts University, which found that drinking one to two cups of caffeinated black coffee a day was tied to a lower risk of death, particularly from cardiovascular disease, but these benefits were no longer seen if saturated fats and sugars were added to coffee. Not only do these added extras negatively impact cardiovascular health, but also your day to day energy levels and tiredness.

Martin shares, “With ready access to coffee at a moment’s notice, caffeine is an easily accessible, potent way to perk us up and get us through the day. However, this can also create a vicious cycle of caffeine dependency. Coffee, by its very nature, is a natural stimulant, and excessive consumption will only keep you awake at night.

“While cream, sugar, or flavoured syrup is what many people opt for when sweetening their morning coffee, these additions have unintended effects on your energy levels and can even affect your sleep later in the day. Sugar, in particular, can cause a sharp spike in blood glucose, which is followed by a crash that can leave you feeling more tired by the afternoon, counteracting the caffeine hit you needed to keep you awake! You might then be more inclined to reach for another coffee, and the cycle continues. This up-and-down cycle can interfere with your natural energy rhythms throughout the day and, crucially, your sleep-wake cycle. Elevated blood sugar levels and frequent caffeine top-ups late in the day can reduce melatonin production, making falling or staying asleep much harder.

“If you’re drinking coffee for a genuine caffeine boost, stick to sugar-free syrups or try sweetening with honey for a natural flavour enhancer. Make sure you pair your morning coffee with some protein and fibre as a more stable way of supporting your alertness without compromising your sleep later on.

“How caffeine affects your sleep entirely depends on how much caffeine you drink. Roughly speaking, it takes up to 10 hours for your body to break down caffeine in your system, so the more caffeine you drink in the day, the longer it will sit in your system. Getting active in the day and evening can actually help reduce the impact of caffeine on your system. This is because exercise produces adenosine, which helps you fall asleep at night. The more adenosine in your body, the harder it is for caffeine to operate, and the more tired you’ll feel in the evening.

“The best way to sleep after caffeine is to avoid any coffee after midday and to swap out your evening drinks for relaxing alternatives, such as teas that encourage better sleep. Drinking water throughout the day will help to balance the stimulating effects of caffeine and supports better sleep hygiene.Meditation, stretching, or taking a warm bath before going to bed can help reduce the effects of caffeine and prepare your body for sleep.”

With coffee consumption increasing in the UK, with the average person consuming 23g per week, up from 20g since 2010, MattressNextDay has analysed which cities consume the most caffeine.

The 25 Most Coffee Loving Cities in the UK:

Rank	City	Region	Population	Coffee Shops	Coffee Shops per 100k	Avg Price of Coffee (£)	Coffee Searches per 100k	Sleep Searches per 100k	Coffee Shop Positive Sentiment (%)	Total Score (Max 100)
1	Manchester	North West	470,411	199	42.3	3.72	69,216	5,280	40	62.98
2	Norwich	East	200,752	74	36.9	3.29	35,168	5,021	46	61.31
3	Leicester	East Midlands	406,588	72	17.7	2.69	19,897	3,146	50	54.49
4	Edinburgh	Scotland	505,310	284	56.2	3.79	79,713	3,006	23	52.01
5	Nottingham	East Midlands	299,797	91	30.4	3.37	37,959	5,560	27	51.07
6	Bristol	South West	425,232	143	33.6	3.70	62,013	3,600	33	47.39
7	Newcastle upon Tyne	North East	286,468	87	30.4	3.49	34,803	3,955	38	46.56
8	Kingston upon Hull	Yorkshire and The Humber	270,806	49	18.1	2.82	6,034	1,758	58	46.52
9	Brighton & Hove	South East	277,106	112	40.4	3.43	50,089	2,342	28	43.96
10	Bournemouth	South West	196,445	67	34.1	3.10	29,576	2,596	29	43.52
11	Liverpool	North West	506,552	159	31.4	3.38	23,670	2,977	38	41.79
12	Birmingham	West Midlands	1,121,408	136	12.1	3.36	25,432	3,895	40	39.91
13	Milton Keynes	South East	197,354	67	33.9	2.69	18,870	1,900	–	39.21
14	London	London	8,776,535	1,800	20.5	3.78	75,918	2,903	28	39.08
15	Sheffield	Yorkshire and The Humber	500,552	108	21.6	3.44	17,061	1,944	54	38.43
16	Leeds	Yorkshire and The Humber	536,321	153	28.5	3.54	29,665	3,185	33	37.81
17	Glasgow	Scotland	631,690	222	35.1	3.55	48,014	2,994	19	37.53
18	Cardiff	Wales	348,546	120	34.4	3.39	24,617	1,523	39	37.34
19	Stoke-on-Trent	West Midlands	260,602	28	10.7	3.17	6,765	1,972	53	35.93
20	Reading	South East	203,808	44	21.6	3.48	24,974	2,120	42	34.74
21	Portsmouth	South East	223,312	63	28.2	3.32	18,494	2,297	32	34.40
22	Plymouth	South West	266,983	68	25.5	3.64	11,784	2,925	33	28.86
23	Belfast	Northern Ireland	384,704	117	30.4	3.49	27,944	1,500	23	26.92
24	Coventry	West Midlands	344,322	42	12.2	3.49	14,231	2,817	31	25.57
25	Wolverhampton	West Midlands	234,015	37	15.8	3.36	10,324	2,602	–	20.56

The city of Manchester ranks top for caffeine consumption, with residents regularly seeking coffee as a remedy for sleep deprivation. Manchester’s high caffeine intake goes hand in hand with its sleep issues, with more than 5,200 searches for sleep remedies per 100,000 people in the past year. With the second highest number of coffee shops per 100,000 people – second only to Edinburgh – and nearly 70,000 coffee-shop related searches, it’s no surprise the city loves its coffee so much. From celebrity favourites like Blank Street for its famed iced coffees and now flavoured matchas – which are now trending as a coffee alternative – to popular independent spots like Idle Hands, Feel Good Club and Chapter One Books, Manchester has a thriving coffee shop scene.

Norwich is in second place and the results clearly show that coffee plays a big role in daily life. With the fourth highest number of coffee shops at almost 40 per 100,000 people and high caffeine-related searches of over 35,000 per 100,000 people, Norwich residents rely on coffee to power through the day. Some coffee shop favourites in the city include Strangers, The Yard, Artel and Kofra. However, their love for coffee comes at a price, as searches for sleep remedies surpass 5,000 per 100,000 people.

Despite having one of the lowest numbers of coffee shops per the population, Leicester takes the third spot due to very high positivity felt towards the city’s coffee shops by its residents, with 50% reporting positive sentiment, and the cheapest price of a coffee in the UK at just £2.69.  Locals know some of the best places to get your fix, to just name a few, are St Martin’s, Saints of Mokha, Bread & Honey and Merchant of Venice. The positive attitudes towards coffee shops in the city is very likely linked to the 3,140 per 100,000 searching for help sleeping, though.

Edinburgh takes the lead for the highest number of coffee shops per 100,000 people, with an impressive 56 venues catering to caffeine lovers across the city. Residents also top the charts for coffee-shop related searches, regularly looking up “coffee shops near me” – a clear sign that coffee culture is thriving in Scotland’s capital. From TikTok-ready spots like Your Coffee Nook, Nice Times and EL&N, to cosy cafes such as The Milkman, Roasters and Old Spence Café. Searches show that more than 3,000 per 100,000 have been struggling to sleep in the capital this past year, though, and caffeine is a key culprit.

Nottingham, meanwhile, ranks highest for sleep remedy searches, with over 5,500 per 100,000 people seeking solutions to sleeplessness. The city also records nearly 38,000 caffeine-related searches and benefits from a relatively low average coffee price of £3.37 – you can pick up some of the best coffee in town from shops like Tough Mary’s, Ugly Bread Bakery, Dispatch Coffee, Public and Blend. The combination of high caffeine interest and affordability may be contributing to disrupted sleep patterns for many residents.

To see where other UK cities ranked, you can view the full study here: https://www.mattressnextday.co.uk/snooze-news/post/the-worlds-most-caffeine-dependent-cities 

As individual responses to caffeine may vary from individual, please consult a medical professional if you have any specific caffeine related queries.

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