If you are someone who needs a strong cup of coffee to get going in the morning, you probably expect results fairly quickly.

Now, new research from the University of Barcelona has found that the effects of caffeine kick in after just 10 minutes – and men are likely to get more of a boost than women.

The researchers assessed the effects of both espresso coffee and decaffeinated espresso coffee on a group of college students, measuring them for alertness at different points in the day.

“Although both the men and women saw an improvement in their activity levels with the coffee, which increased in later measurements, we observed a greater impact among the males,” explained lead author Ana Adan.

Changes in levels of alertness were noticeable just ten minutes after drinking the espresso.

An unexpected finding of the study was that even decaffeinated espresso had a slight effect on alertness, which raises questions for future study.

Previous research from the University of Florida found that most decaffeinated coffees on the market actually contain a small amount of caffeine.