Drinking in the morning could bring more health benefits than drinking cups throughout the day, a new study suggests.

A decade-long study tracking 40,000 people in the US tried to assess whether the time of day people has any After taking into account various other health and lifestyle factors researchers found that morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to have died compared with those who drank no coffee, and they were 31% less likely to have died from heart disease.

There was no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared with those who did not drink any coffee. Lead author Dr Lu Qi, from in Louisiana, said: "Our findings indicate that it's not just whether you drink coffee or how much you drink, but the time of day when you drink coffee that's important.

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"We don't typically give advice about timing in our dietary guidance, but perhaps we should be thinking about this in the future. This study doesn't tell us why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. A possible explanation is that consuming coffee in the afternoon or evening may disrupt circadian rhythms and levels of hormones such as melatonin. This, in turn, leads to changes in cardiovascular risk factors such as inflammation and .”

In a linked editorial, Professor Thomas Luuscher, from the Royal Brompton and Harefield in London, said "many all-day drinkers suffer from sleep disturbances". He wrote: "Overall, we must accept the now substantial evidence that coffee drinking, particularly in the morning hours, is likely to be healthy. Thus, drink your coffee, but do so in the morning."

Dr Lu Qi added: "Research so far suggests that drinking coffee doesn't raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it seems to lower the risk of some chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Given the effects that caffeine has on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day when you drink coffee has any impact on heart health."

He added: "This is the first study testing coffee drinking timing patterns and health outcomes. Further studies are needed to validate our findings in other populations, and we need clinical trials to test the potential impact of changing the time of day when people drink coffee."

Coffee contains antioxidant and compounds like chlorogenic acids, melanoidins, phenolic acids, flavonoids, carotenoids, terpenoids, polyphenols, tannins, alkaloids, stilbenes, and lignans that help protect the body from free radicals. The amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee can vary depending on several factors, including: The type of coffee bean, The type of roast, The brewing method, The amount of ground coffee, and The serving size. The findings are published in the European Heart Journal.