What is the time of day when most suicides occur?

[PRJM]

Is there a time of the day when Suicide Rates are higher? I think about it the most in the morning when I'm alone after the kids are gone to school and my wife has left for work. I don't even want to get out of bed to go to work myself.

 

[Mari]

Re: time of day for Suicide

H! I am still awake enough to respond to your question although it would be just my personal thoughts on the matter since I do not have any professional qualifications. For the past five years I have done a lot of reading and research on suicide and I would say that there is not any simple or specific answer to your question. Most studies and statistics on suicide are based on limited data and vary greatly for different areas of the world. June is considered a high month for suicide in the northern hemisphere and December in the southern hemisphere. "I think about it the most in the morning when I'm alone" does seem to agree with what I have read about the time of day and situation. In some ways that almost seems obvious that people only die by suicide when they are alone and possibly more people are alone during the morning. It would seem important then for a person who is alone to connect with someone to help them through that time and then hopefully seek professional advice on finding some help. I certainly have more thoughts but I hope that helps a little and that you are getting some professional assistance through your doctor and/or therapy.

 

[Daniel E.]

Variation in suicide occurrence by... [Suicide Life Threat Behav. 1991] - PubMed - NCBI

"Suicide occurrence varied substantially by time of day; for both sexes and for ages under 65 years, the fewest suicide deaths occurred during the early morning hours, from 0401 to 0800. For recent years of the study, suicides occurred most frequently on Monday for both males and females and for most age groups."

 

[suewatters1]

Why Mondays because a person doesn't want to face the people at work? That would be the worse time for me because if a person doesn't show up for work without calling in sick might have their coworkers worried. Unless the person was in a relationship and the spouse was at work and they wanted to do it while the spouses was away.

Sue

 

[Daniel E.]

One theory:

They said the pattern - gleaned from 34,935 deaths from 1993 to 2002 - was likely to be down to a sense of unease over starting something new.

"We suggest it could be linked to a theory to do with new beginnings, such as the New Year, a birthday or just the start of a new week."

BBC NEWS | Health | Suicide 'most likely on Mondays'

My theory would be that people are more isolated on the weekends, giving them more time to ruminate for doing something dreadful on Monday.

 

[Daniel E.]

I think people who commit suicide are often more impulsive than that. They also tend to be older white males, with males being more violent than women in general.

Regarding the bigger picture:

http://forum.psychlinks.ca/suicide/28440-future-oriented-group-training-for-suicidal-patients.html

[Video]Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison on depression and suicide

While hopelessness is necessary for a person to be at a high risk of suicide, a person can feel very hopeless without being suicidal. So the point of Joiner's book is that other things are necessary, including becoming increasingly less fearful of suicide itself.

The book says that lethality -- the learned ability to hurt oneself, such as from previous suicide attempts -- is built up over time and there is relatively little that can be done about after the fact. So the emphasis on treatment is with the first two factors, which can vary on a day-to-day basis and are amenable with CBT.

Why People Die by Suicide