Supplement evidence

029 / 575Performance

Caffeine

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The short answer

Improving endurance and some intermittent high-intensity performance for responsive adults.

Evidence and scope: Supported for specific outcomes
This status does not grade the ingredient for every goal, outcome, or person.
Important limitation: Performance response varies, and supplement use does not prove a lifespan benefit.
Before deciding: Can worsen sleep, anxiety, reflux, palpitations, and blood pressure; concentrated powders are risky.

01 / PRACTICAL GUIDE

Dose, absorption, and combinations

These are indication-specific reference or studied ranges—not a personalized prescription. Start with the objective, then check the form, label, medicines, and health conditions.

Reference range by objective

Alertness and focusAbout 1–3 mg/kg or 50–200 mg

Reference or studied range—not a personalized prescription. The product label or a clinician may specify a different dose.

Dose source ↗

Sports performance3–6 mg/kg about 60 minutes before exercise; lower doses may work

Reference or studied range—not a personalized prescription. The product label or a clinician may specify a different dose.

Dose source ↗

More is not automatically better. A clinician or product label may specify a different amount.

Absorption / solubilityWater-soluble

Water-soluble or readily water-dispersible. This does not mean excess is always harmless.

How it is commonly taken

Use early enough to protect sleep; account for coffee, tea, energy drinks, and medicines.

Do not combine casually

Avoid stacking stimulants; pregnancy, anxiety, arrhythmia, hypertension, and CYP1A2 interactions change risk.

Dose and use source ↗

Dose and use links lead to primary or official source material. Search links are discovery tools, not proof that every returned paper applies.

02 / EVIDENCE

What the research says

We keep supportive, mixed, negative, safety, and contextual findings together. The headline never replaces the underlying papers.

5research papers in this ledger

50unique primary studies represented

812unique participants represented

These are audited counts for this JIVANA collection, not search-result totals. Participants are counted once when multiple papers use the same cohort; review papers are not added again to participant totals.

Open the research timelineResearch timeline

Entries are ordered by publication year. A study period appears only when the source reports it.

2026

Supports a specific usePMID 42356375

Dose-response effect of oral caffeine use on aerobic exercise performance

Low and moderate doses produced small performance improvements; 4–6 mg/kg was more consistent, and evidence for doses above 6 mg/kg was absent for this outcome.

Published: 2026n=689 participants48 primary studies represented

Study design and methods

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis of 48 randomized placebo-controlled studies
Population: 689 trained or highly trained participants
Intervention: Pre-exercise oral caffeine, mainly 1.3–6 mg/kg, versus placebo
Outcome: Aerobic time-trial completion time

Open research record ↗

2025

Safety signalPMID 39377163 · ACTRN12621001625864

Dose and timing effects of caffeine on subsequent sleep

A single 400 mg dose disrupted objective sleep even 12 hours before bed, with larger effects closer to bedtime. The 100 mg dose showed no significant effect in this small all-male sample.

Published: 2025n=23 participants

Study design and methods

Design: Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled crossover trial
Population: 23 healthy men with moderate habitual caffeine intake
Intervention: 100 mg or 400 mg caffeine 12, 8, or 4 hours before bedtime versus placebo
Outcome: Home polysomnography and sleep diaries

Open research record ↗

2018

Supports a specific usePMID 30379815 · UMIN000023576

Effect of single caffeine intake on neuropsychological functions in healthy volunteers

Caffeine improved some shifting-attention measures and braking reaction time, but the narrow test battery does not establish a broad cognitive benefit.

Published: 2018n=100 participants

Study design and methods

Design: Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial
Population: 100 healthy adults after three days without caffeine
Intervention: Single 200 mg caffeine dose versus placebo
Outcome: Attention-shifting tests and simulated driving performance

Funding or conflict note: The study reported public research-grant support and no commercial sponsor.

Open research record ↗

2013

Safety signalPMID 24235903

Caffeine effects on sleep taken 0, 3, or 6 hours before going to bed

Sleep was disrupted at all three timings, including six hours before bed. The newer dose-timing trial is used for the counted total, so this supporting study is not counted again.

Published: 2013

Study design and methods

Design: Double-blind placebo-controlled home sleep study
Population: 12 healthy adults with normal sleep
Intervention: 400 mg caffeine at bedtime or 3 or 6 hours before bedtime versus placebo
Outcome: Objective and self-reported sleep disturbance

Open research record ↗

2012

Evidence contextPMID 22591295

Association of coffee drinking with total and cause-specific mortality

Coffee intake was associated with lower mortality after adjustment, including for decaffeinated coffee. Residual confounding and coffee's other components prevent attributing the association to caffeine or claiming a treatment effect.

Published: 2012

Study design and methods

Design: Prospective observational cohort study
Population: 402,260 U.S. adults aged 50–71 after prespecified exclusions
Intervention: Self-reported caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee consumption; no randomized caffeine intervention
Outcome: Total and cause-specific mortality

Funding or conflict note: This was an NIH–AARP cohort analysis, not a supplement trial.

Open research record ↗

Unscreened discovery appendix—not evidence3,406 candidate publicationsSearch run: Aug 21, 2026

Complete for the displayed PubMed query at the search timestamp—not for all databases or every possible synonym. Candidates can be irrelevant, duplicate the same study, or report negative findings. They are never summed as evidence or participants until screened.

03 / SOURCES

Start with the source material

Official evidence overviewNIH Office of Dietary Supplements Live PubMed discovery searchNational Library of Medicine

The live search is for discovery only. Search-result counts change and are not included in the audited totals above.

Recent PubMed discovery recordsDirect links to the first 12 records returned by the reproducible search. These are discovery candidates—not reviewed summaries or a count of supportive findings.

04 / EXPERT CONTEXT

Expert context—not evidence

Expert positions are dated context—not scientific evidence. They never raise the evidence status or become consensus by repetition.

Public endorsement

Andrew Huberman

Neuroscientist and health educator

Describes 100–200 mg as useful before focused work for many caffeine-adapted adults while warning about anxiety, tolerance, and sleep disruption.

Source date: 2022
Context / disclosure: Scoped educational opinion, not a clinical guideline.

Huberman Lab — Focus Toolkit ↗