Some prefer not to dwell on the exact moment when we will leave this earth, others are morbidly curious.
But science has uncovered several clear patterns around when people tend to die.
Just as you have a ‘body clock’ that helps determine when you wake and sleep, it also influences the time you die – with a clear ‘peak’ in the morning.
Other studies have shown that certain days of the week are much deadlier – and one day of the year in particular has more deaths than any other day.
Some of this is due to factors such as drug and firearm overdoses, but other “spikes” are more difficult to explain.
There is a ‘body clock’ for death (Image: Rob Waugh/Midjourney)
What time of day are you most likely to die?
Your body clock not only makes you feel hungry and sleepy, but it also influences when you die, science shows.
According to 2012 research from Harvard Medical School, people are most likely to die around 11 a.m.
Professor Clifford Saper, the paper’s lead author, said: ‘Virtually all physiological processes have a circadian rhythm, meaning they occur mainly during certain parts of the day.
‘There is even a circadian mortality rhythm, so that people in the general population are on average most likely to die in the morning hours. Somewhere around 11am is the average time.”
But the picture is actually a little more complex than that.
Saper’s study, which involved 1,200 healthy people aged 65, found that people with a certain genotype (the genetic variants a person carries) have different sleep patterns – and a different average time of death.
People with the GG (guanine-guanine) genotype tend to generally sleep about an hour later and die around 6 p.m. instead of 11 a.m. where most people die.
Saper said, “There really is a gene that predicts the time of day you will die. Fortunately not the date, but the time of day,’
What day of the year are you most likely to die?
More deaths occur on one day of the year than on any other day (Shutterstock)
According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more people die in the cold winter months than any other time of year.
January and December are usually the deadliest months of the year, but an analysis by Professor David Philips of 57 million death certificates between 1979 and 2004 has identified one day as the deadliest.
Philips found that New Year’s Day is the deadliest of the year – and the reason isn’t due to partying, alcohol or traffic accidents.
Philips said: ‘This pattern occurs with any natural cause of death, but not with external causes such as car accidents. It’s hard to understand why that is so.’
More recent research shows that Christmas Day is the deadliest day of the year (at least when it comes to heart attacks), with a significant spike between Christmas and New Year.
Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, volunteer president of the American Heart Association, said, “The holidays are a busy, often stressful time for most of us. Routines are disrupted; we may tend to eat and drink more and exercise and relax less.
‘Maybe we also don’t listen to our bodies or pay attention to warning signs, thinking this can wait until after the new year. All of this can contribute to increasing the risk of heart attack at this time of year.’
On what day of the week are you most likely to die?
Analysis of 39 million deaths between 1999 and 2004 has found that there is one day of the week when you are most likely to die: Saturday.
Researchers at LiveScience analyzed CDC data for all deaths and found a small but significant increase in deaths on Saturday.
Some of the reasons for this are quite simple: Deaths from drug overdoses, car accidents, and firearms all peak on Saturdays.
More recent research from 2018 shows that you are even more likely to die if you are admitted to hospital at the weekend.
The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that 25.2 percent of cardiac arrest patients survived on weekdays, while 21.9 percent survived on weekends and weeknights.