When should you stop drinking coffee before bed?
There is no single last-coffee time that works for everyone. Your bedtime, caffeine dose and the speed at which your body clears caffeine all matter. A personal cut-off is an estimate based on those inputs, not a promise that you will sleep well.
Why the time of your coffee matters
EFSA reports that a 100 mg dose may affect sleep duration and patterns in some adults, especially close to bedtime. That describes a dose consumed, not a measured amount remaining in your body.
Caffeine clears gradually. If you drink another cup before the earlier one has cleared, their remaining amounts overlap. Our guide to caffeine half-life explains the idea with an example.
A daily limit and a bedtime estimate answer different questions
A daily total asks how much you consumed. A bedtime estimate asks how much the model predicts will remain at a particular time. Staying below a daily limit does not guarantee that a late coffee will leave your sleep unaffected.
What BeanFade’s last-coffee time means
BeanFade estimates when your usual drink would still fit under the sleep line you chose at bedtime. To make the estimate useful:
- Set your own sleep schedule. The app uses your bedtime and wake-up time, including schedules that cross the daytime.
- Choose a metabolism preset. Fast, average and slow adjust the model’s half-life. They are preferences, not a clinical assessment.
- Log your drinks. Their caffeine amounts and times change the curve and your next cut-off.
- Check another drink before adding it. The log screen estimates the change to bedtime caffeine and sleep-ready time.
What is the sleep line?
The sleep line is your chosen caffeine-remaining threshold. BeanFade starts it at 50 mg and lets you adjust it from 10 to 150 mg. It is a product setting, not an established medical boundary between good and bad sleep.
“Sleep-ready” means the model estimates your caffeine has fallen under that line. It does not measure whether you are ready to fall asleep. Other factors also affect sleep, and the app cannot account for all of them.
What if your evenings do not match the forecast?
Treat the result as an estimate to compare with your own experience. Review your logged amounts, times and model settings. BeanFade’s optional Premium sleep comparison uses Apple Health data to show patterns; those patterns do not prove that caffeine caused a change in sleep.
Source and review
Health information checked against EFSA’s caffeine overview on 24 October 2026. The app settings above describe BeanFade’s implementation. This guide is written by a developer, not a clinician, and does not replace personal medical advice.