A new study revealed that people are more likely to commit suicide between midnight and 4 A.M. than during the day or in the evening.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Researchers looked at data from the National Violent Death Reporting System, which provided data for the estimated time of fatal injury, and the American Time Use Survey, which gives hourly proportion of the American population that is awake. Time of fatal injury was categorized into one-hour bins, and the hourly distribution of these data were weighted by the proportion of people awake at each hour and scaled to 100 percent. A total of 35,332 suicides were included in the analysis.
Researcher found that suicide rates were 3.6 times higher than expected between midnight and 5:59 A.M. After midnight, suicide rate per hour was 10.27 percent. The rate was the highest (16.27 percent) between 2 a.m. and 2:59 a.m. This dropped to 2.13 percent from 6 a.m. and 11:59 p.m.
"This appears to be the first data to suggest that circadian factors may contribute to suicidality and help explain why insomnia is also a risk factor for suicidal ideation and behavior," said principal investigator Michael Perlis in a press statement. "These results suggest that not only are nightmares and insomnia significant risk factors for suicidal ideation and behavior, but just being awake at night may in and of itself be a risk factor for suicide."
According to CDC estimates, suicide is the tenth leading cause of death accounting for 38,000 deaths each year. Comparatively, 16,000 deaths occur each year due to homicide.
Study authors suggest that treating insomnia is one way to reduce the risk of suicide. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine reports that about 10 percent of adults have a chronic insomnia disorder lasting at least three months.
Finings of the study were published online in the journal Sleep.
