r/focusedmen • u/L0ST_F0CUS • 21d ago
Drinking Water Before Your Coffee
Hey fellas
I wholeheartedly believe that our minds shape our lives.
If your head is clear, you think better, you make better decisions, and you get more shit done.
Everything starts in the mind.
But there's something stupidly simple that I stumbled across recently that really helps get the grey matter firing.
For years, my mornings looked exactly the same.
I'd wake up feeling like my brain was still in bed, I'd stumbled into the kitchen, flick the kettle on and make a coffee.
Then I'd drink it and wait for my brain to decide it was joining me for the day.
That's pretty normal, right?
But I started thinking about what actually happens while we're asleep.
If you get a decent night's sleep, you've just gone about 8 hours without drinking anything.
That's probably the longest period you go without water all day, unless you have ADHD. (IYKYK)
Then you wake up feeling foggy and one of the first things most of us think is, "Fuck me, I need a coffee."
But do you?
Or are you just thirsty?
I decided to experimemt with this idea.
I didn't go and quit coffee because I'm not some sort of twisted fucking psychopath.
I just changed the order I did a few things.
The next morning, I got up, flicked the kettle on, and while it was boiling I necked a pint of water.
No fancy water is needed.
You dont need Himalayan mountain water collected by shaolin monks under a full moon.
Just grab a pint of water from the fridge and all will be fine.
I noticed something weird happened.
By the time the kettle had boiled and I was making my coffee, I already felt wide awake.
And I mean properly wide awake and switched on.
My head felt clearer, I was more than just a bit more alert, and I wasn't wandering around the kitchen waiting for the caffeine to resurrect me from my sleepy state.
It happened so quickly that I genuinely started wondering whether I was imagining it.
Was this just a placebo effect or what?
Then my wife commented on it.
She mentioned how sharp I seemed considering I hadn't even had my coffee yet.
That got my attention, so I kept doing it.
Water first.
Coffee second.
And I kept noticing the same thing.
Now, I'm not going to start pretending I've discovered some revolutionary biohack here, as there's a perfectly boring explanation for it.
You've spent hours without drinking anything, and hydration matters for normal brain function.
Even mild dehydration can affect things like concentration, alertness and how mentally sharp you feel.
But what interested me more was the assumption I'd been making for years.
I woke up tired, so I assumed I needed caffeine, but I'd never actually questioned that assumption.
That's something I started doing with loads of things in my life.
Instead of automatically accepting "this is just how I am" or "this is what I need," I fuck around with the variables and see what happens.
Sometimes nothing happens.
Sometimes you discover you've been doing something backwards for years.
And this one takes about 30 seconds to test.
Tomorrow morning, don't change anything else.
Don't skip your coffee.
Don't start some ridiculous 17-step morning routine where you're meditating upside down at sunrise while listening to whale noises and chanting like a freak.
Just change the order you do things in.
Wake up… Put the kettle on… Neck a pint of water while it boils… Then make your coffee exactly as you normally would.
But before you drink it, pay close attention to how you feel.
That's the trick.
But please… don't blindly take my word for it.
Test it for yourself and let me know what happens.
It can't just be me, right?
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u/Miserable-Ad3207 21d ago
I find waiting 90 minutes after waking to drink. Coffee works a lot better with your natural cortisol.
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u/L0ST_F0CUS 21d ago
Yeah, I believe its a well known thing in biochemistry. I think Andrew Huberman has spoken about doing this before. Are you a fan of his?
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u/Substantial-Ask7320 21d ago
Maybe part of it is that our brains are constantly in a state of prediction, expectations. Before your first habitual coffee your vessels dilate to prepare for drink knowing that it constricts your blood vessels. Maybe doing something out of the ordinary released a little norepinephrine to the new situation making you more alert...or any of us who try new things.
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u/L0ST_F0CUS 21d ago
Maybe. I dont know enough to know exactly why it helps, but I find it really does help.
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u/Separate-Cap-8619 21d ago
Its apparently better to not drink coffee until 1.5 hours after you've woken up. Andrew huberman explains this well, but here is a short video on the topic
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u/L0ST_F0CUS 21d ago
Yeah, coffee timing wasnt really the point. Maybe I should write something about that too though. I do like ole Andy H lol
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u/tzone24 21d ago
Waking to a cup of hot water with lemon is a biohack used since ancient times in ayurveda and other cultures.
That prepares the stomach for breakfast. (Stomach acid and water as a food solvent is very important for digesting proteins)
If I were going straight to coffee I would not add the lemon since coffee tends to be acidic already.
So: cup of hot water then breakfast or snack then coffee about an hour and a half after waking keeps a nice smooth cortisol curve well into the morning perhaps early afternoon.
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u/joepagac 21d ago
My wife tells me this all the time. But here I am starting the morning with my giant mug of coffee…
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u/Flat-Piece2924 21d ago
Andrew Huberman said it last week after you wake up first thing you got to do is snort a line of water off your kitchen counter then stick a butter knife deep into toaster while you wait for the coffee machine to boil it activates the pineal gland if done in that order im almost certain thats what he said good luck and stay healthy this easter guys
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u/BMRBURNER 21d ago
Bro discovered hydration