Most Likely, You’re Going To Die At 11:00 a.m.

Maybe not the 11:00am set to occur in a couple hours, but 11:00am nonetheless:

Particularly when you’re older, you are 14 percent more likely to die on your birthday than on any other day of the year. Particularly when you live in certain geographical areas, you are 13 percent more likely to die after getting a paycheck. And particularly when you’re human, you are more likely to die in the late morning — around 11 a.m., specifically — than at any other time during the day.

Yes. That last one comes from a new study, published in the Annals of Neurology, that identifies a common gene variant affecting circadian rhythms. And that variant, it seems, could also predict the time of day you will die.

Even death, apparently, has a circadian rhythm.

Sounds like a reason to sleep until Noon to me.

FILED UNDER: Health
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. john personna says:

    I’m a morning person. I bet something like 2 or 3 pm gets me.

  2. Dave Schuler says:

    As long as it’s not 11:00am today, I don’t much care.

  3. Rafer Janders says:

    Made it!

  4. Peter says:

    I’m surprised, I would have figured that the nighttime hours are the deadliest.

  5. john personna says:

    BTW, I got a really amazing email from Vanguard on my birthday. “Happy Birthday!” and “Please verify your beneficiary designations.”

    LOL, they apparently don’t think I have long.

  6. john personna says:

    Also related:

    RAY SUAREZ: Talking of truly informed choices. One of your experts mentioned that between drug interaction, medical mistakes, and hospital-acquired infections, getting medical treatment is one of the highest-rated causes of death in the United States.

    ROGER WEISBERG: All of those situations combined account for the third leading cause of death. That is a shocking number for patients. I think more than anything else, that statistic ought to convince us to abandon the pervasive view that more is always better in health care.

    Via Barry Ritholtz