Drinking tea, coffee within 4 hours of bedtime "has no impact on sleep"

PanARMENIAN.Net - If you want to nod off easily you know that chugging the caffeine pre-bed time is a massive faux-pas.

But new research has revealed that drinking coffee or tea within four hours of bedtime does not actually affect sleep, Yahoo Style reports.

In fact smoking and drinking alcohol pre lights out are the biggest sleep thieves.

The study, by researchers at Florida Atlantic University and Harvard Medical School and published in the journal Sleep, used sensors and daily sleep diaries to track the sleep of 785 participants across 5,164 days and nights.

As well as recording the hours of sleep each person clocked up, they also analysed the quality of their sleep, plus how much alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine they consumed within four hours before going to bed.

The study found that while nicotine and alcohol disrupted sleep, caffeine seemed to have no effect.

While a nightcap might seem like a good idea to help you drift off, in fact sleep was more disrupted after drinking alcohol or smoking, which made for lower quality rest and feeling groggy in the morning.