Most of us have a non-negotiable. Coffee is one, but it can be a sneaky bugger when you’re over 40. Freshly brewed (sorry, as if we wouldn't) research using EEG to measure the brain’s electrical activity found caffeine can leave the sleeping brain looking more awake, with fewer of the slow brain waves associated with deep recovery. You might still nod off normally and wake up feeling like you slept like a boss, while your brain tells a different story. That matters when you reach for it because you’re already knackered. So instead of skipping the flat white, here are three effortless ways to make your daily brew work with you.
Slurp Your Coffee Outside
One in three people in midlife have low vitamin D, which can leave you feeling spent and weak. Those with higher levels after age 39 had a lower chance of dementia 16 years later. It doesn’t take much spring sun to top up your levels, and it's the cheapest energy-management meeting you'll have all day.
Go Have A Hit Kick Or a Chuck
Exercise and burpees are not mutually exclusive. Among more than 400 people approaching midlife, doing something fun rather than none, was linked with slower cognitive decline later in life. A knock of tennis. Wet a line. Kick a footy. It doesn’t have to feel like exercise to count. Revive5 has creatine, RedNite®, L-carnitine, and a few other choice ingredients to support energy and performance, helping put some fuel in the tank so keeping busy feels like the privilege it is.
Don’t Let Your Long Black Go Feral
Following more than 47,000 coffee drinkers for 30 years, the sweet spot for healthy ageing was about 2–4 cups a day, with each extra cup linked to a 2–5% greater chance of ageing well, up to five small cups. Keep coffee on the menu. Just treat it like an energy tool, not something you keep refilling from sparrow’s fart to knock-off. By cup six, you’re less energised and more like a whipper snipper someone left running in the shed.
And when sleep does go tits up, because the birds have started their spring carry-on at sparrow’s fart, it pays to have nutritional backup. Good food and regular movement do plenty of the heavy lifting, while Revive5 brings L-carnitine, taurine, theanine and creatine to the party, with creatine having particularly interesting research behind it when your brain gets short-changed on sleep. You’ll never guarantee eight glorious hours every night, but you can give tomorrow a fighting chance, so your biggest athletic feat isn't trying to finish a yawn before your first sip of coffee.
Why Your Eight Hours Might Not Be Doing The Job After 40