A cup of coffee near bedtime may NOT stop you sleeping after all!

We’ve all been told that drinking tea or coffee or a heavily caffeinated drink after dinner or near bedtime will stop us getting off to sleep; but could we have got this all wrong?

Drinking caffeine close to bedtime may not stop you getting off to sleep a new study suggests. Instead, it is alcohol which is far more likely to lead to a night of tossing and turning.

Researchers tracked the sleep of nearly 800 people over six nights, and got them to note if they had consumed caffeine, alcohol or nicotine in the four hours before bed.

Almost half had caffeinated drinks at night but no link with poor sleep could be found. In contrast, those who drank alcohol saw their sleep efficiency fall by almost 1 per cent – the equivalent of almost five minutes lost sleep. Those who smoked saw a 2 per cent fall, an average of eight minutes lost sleep.