Habitual coffee consumption poorly correlates with sleep quality and daytime sleepiness : A cross-sectional study
(2026) In PLOS ONE 21(3 March).- Abstract
Coffee is the most common drink in the world, second only to water. This makes caffeine, the ingredient of coffee known for its wakefulness-promoting effects, one of the most used psychoactive substances. The psychoactive property of caffeine is well-characterized, and entails its interaction with the adenosine receptors, involved in sleep regulation. While studies have shown a deleterious immediate effect of caffeine on sleep, less is known about the effects of chronic caffeine exposure. In the present cross-sectional study, we investigated this relationship across a large cohort of 30,154 individuals participating in the Swedish Cardiopulmonary Bioimage Study (SCAPIS), which allowed us to compare habitual coffee intake with sleep... (More)
Coffee is the most common drink in the world, second only to water. This makes caffeine, the ingredient of coffee known for its wakefulness-promoting effects, one of the most used psychoactive substances. The psychoactive property of caffeine is well-characterized, and entails its interaction with the adenosine receptors, involved in sleep regulation. While studies have shown a deleterious immediate effect of caffeine on sleep, less is known about the effects of chronic caffeine exposure. In the present cross-sectional study, we investigated this relationship across a large cohort of 30,154 individuals participating in the Swedish Cardiopulmonary Bioimage Study (SCAPIS), which allowed us to compare habitual coffee intake with sleep habits, subjective estimate of daytime sleepiness, and underlying genetic variants. According to our analyses, different degrees of coffee consumption, confirmed by statistical association with previously reported genetic variants, showed very low association with estimated patterns of sleep habits or perceived daytime sleepiness. These results indicate that coffee may be less impactful on sleep habits than previously thought, or that other mechanisms, such as the adaptive capabilities of the adenosine system in adult coffee users, may dampen its psychoactive potency.
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- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-03
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- PLOS ONE
- volume
- 21
- issue
- 3 March
- article number
- e0344479
- publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105032104766
- pmid:41801928
- ISSN
- 1932-6203
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0344479
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2026 Söderholm et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
- id
- 66d2c4ea-d21b-4146-ae33-1f0d1c73d0c0
- date added to LUP
- 2026-05-04 13:58:10
- date last changed
- 2026-05-18 14:49:41
@article{66d2c4ea-d21b-4146-ae33-1f0d1c73d0c0,
abstract = {{<p>Coffee is the most common drink in the world, second only to water. This makes caffeine, the ingredient of coffee known for its wakefulness-promoting effects, one of the most used psychoactive substances. The psychoactive property of caffeine is well-characterized, and entails its interaction with the adenosine receptors, involved in sleep regulation. While studies have shown a deleterious immediate effect of caffeine on sleep, less is known about the effects of chronic caffeine exposure. In the present cross-sectional study, we investigated this relationship across a large cohort of 30,154 individuals participating in the Swedish Cardiopulmonary Bioimage Study (SCAPIS), which allowed us to compare habitual coffee intake with sleep habits, subjective estimate of daytime sleepiness, and underlying genetic variants. According to our analyses, different degrees of coffee consumption, confirmed by statistical association with previously reported genetic variants, showed very low association with estimated patterns of sleep habits or perceived daytime sleepiness. These results indicate that coffee may be less impactful on sleep habits than previously thought, or that other mechanisms, such as the adaptive capabilities of the adenosine system in adult coffee users, may dampen its psychoactive potency.</p>}},
author = {{Söderholm, Simon and Ulander, Martin and Toma, Vanessa William and Kaufmann, Sara and Qiao, Xiangyu and Berglind, Daniel and Calling, Susanna and Daka, Bledar and Grote, Ludger and Martinell, Mats and Bergman, Frida and Henriksson, Pontus and Östgren, Carl Johan and Zhong, Wen and Cantù, Claudio and Iredahl, Fredrik}},
issn = {{1932-6203}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3 March}},
publisher = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
series = {{PLOS ONE}},
title = {{Habitual coffee consumption poorly correlates with sleep quality and daytime sleepiness : A cross-sectional study}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0344479}},
doi = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0344479}},
volume = {{21}},
year = {{2026}},
}