Matcha and Sleep: Should You Avoid It at Night?
A late cup may disturb some nights, with no universal cutoff time. The hour and portion give you practical things to observe.
By Roseline Zhou, Founder
Contents
You enjoy matcha late in the day but wonder whether it might delay your sleep. Its caffeine can disrupt sleep for some people, especially close to bedtime. There's no universal hour after which a cup is guaranteed to have no effect.
If a late bowl comes before several nights when you struggle to fall asleep, we'd try drinking it earlier. That's a simple change to observe, without immediately blaming tea for every difficult night. The caffeine in your matcha depends in part on how much powder you put in the bowl.
Does matcha keep you awake?
Not everyone. But 100 mg of caffeine close to bedtime can change sleep duration and patterns for some adults. That observation gives neither a personal threshold nor a guarantee that a lower amount won't affect you.
We'd consider the time and the amount of powder together. A large bowl can contain little matcha, or the reverse; adding water changes the flavor, not the caffeine supplied by the tea. Other caffeinated drinks during the day make the comparison harder still.
How much caffeine is in matcha drunk at night?
An analysis of commercially sold powders found 13 to 68 mg of caffeine for preparations using about 1/2 to 1 tsp (1 to 2 g) of the matcha powders studied. The sample included pure matcha and green tea blends. It measured neither your pouch nor a Kura-ge lot.
Weigh the powder if you want to compare one evening with another. You'll have a concrete guide to your preparation without knowing your exact caffeine exposure. If you also drank coffee or other teas, note that too: the last cup doesn't tell the whole story of your day.
When should you have your last cup?
No cutoff time suits everyone. Caffeine exposure and sensitivity to its effects vary from person to person and by context. Note when you drink matcha, the weight of powder, and how you sleep. If a pattern repeats, move your cup earlier and see what changes.
We prefer that personal reference point to a fixed hour. If your schedule changes often, evenings are harder to compare. Late matcha may matter, but it isn't necessarily the only explanation for difficult sleep.
Does matcha help you sleep?
We don't present it as a sleep aid. A hot drink can be pleasant in the evening; that doesn't demonstrate a benefit from matcha for falling asleep. The presence of L-theanine doesn't let us predict that a cup will help you sleep, either.
If you want the pleasure of a hot drink in the evening, start by considering your sensitivity to caffeine. Green tea before bed raises the same question about the amount of tea used. Decaffeinated Japanese tea has been processed, but isn't necessarily caffeine-free.