Reading Over Coffee in the Morning Could Sharpen Your Focus All Day Long

Impact of Coffee

Caffeine’s biggest contribution here is straightforward: It helps you feel more awake and better able to sustain attention. That makes it a useful complement for the kind of focused mental work reading requires. “Research shows caffeine consistently improves alertness, reaction time, and sustained attention, especially the kind of focus needed to stay on a task without drifting,” says Kara Craddock, RDN, registered dietitian and founder of The Blood Sugar Dietitian. 

That increased focus lasts for much longer than the few minutes it takes to drink your coffee. “The average half-life of caffeine, or how long it takes your body to clear half of it, is about five hours, though that range varies widely by person,” Craddock says. “That means one morning cup is still doing something in your system many hours later.”