--- title: Coffee Sleep: Counting Sheep Coffee Allows Coffee Before Bed description: Imagine having coffee as a nightcap. That's what Deland Jessop says he and his wife have begun to do with Counting Sheep Coffee. canonical: https://time.com/3677309/coffee-you-can-drink-before-sleep/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-22T14:38:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:45:55.039Z article:section: Health og:title: There's Now Coffee to Help You Fall Asleep og:description: Imagine having coffee as a nightcap. That's what Deland Jessop says he and his wife have begun to do with Counting Sheep Coffee. og:url: https://time.com/3677309/coffee-you-can-drink-before-sleep/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e915f81e7f0853c/6987791f3c16394aa0451149/coffee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5616 og:image:height: 3159 og:image:alt: coffee og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's Now Coffee to Help You Fall Asleep twitter:description: Imagine having coffee as a nightcap. That's what Deland Jessop says he and his wife have begun to do with Counting Sheep Coffee. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e915f81e7f0853c/6987791f3c16394aa0451149/coffee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There's Now Coffee to Help You Fall Asleep > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=b05fdbb9-6c12-4239-8726-33d8c7a6cbad&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 22, 2015 2:38 PM UTC  Feshly brewed espresso Feshly brewed espresso Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 22, 2015 2:38 PM UTC Imagine brewing coffee as a nightcap. That’s what Deland Jessop says he and his wife have begun to do with Counting Sheep Coffee—a new product designed to allow coffee lovers to drink a cup before bed without being kept awake for hours. “Instead of a glass of wine, we’ll brew up a cup of coffee instead,” said Jessop, who launched the company in 2013. When his wife complained that she couldn’t enjoy coffee after 3 p.m., Jessop turned his home into a makeshift lab to search for a possible solution. After experimenting with a variety of herbs and supplements, he says he stumbled upon valerian—a plant that has been used as a mild sedative in Europe for centuries. He mixed it with decaf to mask the pungent smell, and sleep coffee was born. Jessop notes that Counting Sheep Coffee is a food product, not a drug to help with sleep. Valerian is approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a food ingredient. Experts don’t know exactly why the plant such a potent sleep-inducer, but there’s little known risk of side effects (other than the obvious drowsiness), says University of California San Francisco associate professor Stephen Bent. “In the studies that have been done, it’s been show to be safe,” he says. “It has a long traditional history of being used to induce sleep.” The product first appeared at Bed, Bath & Beyond in 2013, and is now sold in several regional supermarkets. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3677309/coffee-you-can-drink-before-sleep/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3677309/coffee-you-can-drink-before-sleep/"},"headline":"There's Now Coffee to Help You Fall Asleep","datePublished":"2015-01-22T14:38:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:45:55.039Z","description":"A new product mixes coffee with a sleep-inducing herb","url":"https://time.com/3677309/coffee-you-can-drink-before-sleep/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Food","Caffeine","Coffee","Drink"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e915f81e7f0853c/6987791f3c16394aa0451149/coffee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e915f81e7f0853c/6987791f3c16394aa0451149/coffee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"coffee","caption":"coffee","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3677309/coffee-you-can-drink-before-sleep/","name":"There's Now Coffee to Help You Fall Asleep"}}]}] ```