If your first instinct after a restless night's sleep is to reach for a coffee, you may actually be making the problem worse.
A former exercise physiology lecturer says that first cuppa of your day could be the reason you can't sleep at night.
Pete Upton, a health and fitness science lecturer for more than a decade, says the way we absorb caffeine can wreak havoc with our bodies.
"The big thing is that caffeine doesn't give anyone energy … but it does block a receptor in the brain," he said.
In laymen's terms, caffeine takes up space where sleep hormones need to be, resulting in an inability to wind down and get some shut-eye.
For self-confessed coffee addict Terri-Lee Sharpe, a recent focus on adenosine was a "wake-up call"'.
It's common for the mum of four to have 12 shots of coffee before 10:00am.
"A typical morning is wake up, get the four kids sorted, we get in the car and I'm still in my PJs, [with] bed hair and no bra, and we pull into the coffee shop," she laughed.
"The kids go in, get my coffee and bring it out to me then I drop them at the bus stop and I'm ready for the day."
The upside off coffee, tea
Far from decrying caffeine as "bad", Mr Upton says coffee and tea have some great benefits.
"They're really high in antioxidants and compounds called phenols that do really good things for you," he said.
"It's not that coffee or tea are bad, but the timing of it should be considered."
During the first 90 minutes after waking up, Mr Upton recommends trying to avoid caffeine.
"Ninety minutes after waking your brain function has woken up and the stress hormones have all changed and everything's starting to come into daytime mode," he said.
"Then you can expose yourself to caffeine without having a problem at the end of the day, making sure the brain chemicals that are going to put you to sleep haven't been disrupted.
"If you have one [coffee] first up, you take some of those adenosine receptors out of action for a long time, and it delays adenosine being able to build up."
Changing, not kicking, the habit
For Ms Sharpe, a former barista, working for many years in cafes has cemented the routine of "coffee first".
"You had to warm up the machines and the first thing you would do, especially for the single-origin black, was to taste it and make sure it was on point," she said.
"And then you'd have another and you might have another … they ruined me," she laughed.
Mr Upton recommends water as the first liquid to be consumed in the morning and to avoid caffeine and simple carbs as long as you can.
It's advice Ms Sharpe will take on board.
"It's really made me think and … getting older, being more aware of your body and changes and things that don't work, it makes a lot of sense," she said.
"It's something I could do, but I'd have to make some big changes."
