There’s a Reason Most Removal Calls Come Outside Business Hours

Some of the biggest concerns of a new removal tech — in addition to worries about squatting and bending in their suit, how to operate the stretcher, and whether or not there will be lots of stairs — revolve around overnight calls. Will they hear the phone? Should they take their sleep meds? In a perfect world, people would die only between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. local time, which would allow for removal during daylight hours and well before quitting time. 

Here in the real world, though, overnight removals — and medicine-free, sleepless nights — are just part of the job. You might actually feel that more removals happen between midnight and 8:00 a.m. than at any other time. You wouldn’t be wrong. In fact, science would back you up.

“Letting go” time

Most of the evidence that most people die in the early morning hours is anecdotal. It’s not only funeral directors and removal techs who can attest to this, but also hospital and nursing home workers. And even some researchers agree.

An often-cited study published in 1987 and shared by the National Library of Medicine in 2009 concluded that “most people die between 2:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m., with a peak often cited between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.” The same paper cited three other studies of death certificates indicating that “human mortality rises rapidly from a low at 12 a.m. to 2 a.m. to a peak at 6 a.m. to 8 a.m.”

Julie McFadden, a YouTuber with millions of followers known as “Hospice Nurse Julie,” refers to this time span as the “letting go” hour. In a recent video, she says that in her nine years in the profession, she’s found that “most people die between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.”

Scientific support

While it’s true that most humans spend one-third of our lives sleeping (and thus, have a one-in-three chance of dying at night), there are other reasons for the overnight death phenomenon.

The most common explanation has to do with circadian rhythm, our body’s natural 24-hour cycle. During the early-morning hours, many of our bodily functions like heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature, are at their lowest levels. We have less energy, as well. Additionally, many people experience respiratory issues like sleep apnea and cardiopulmonary irregularities during the overnight hours, with some becoming catastrophic events.

The 1987 study also found that people who take sleeping pills often have “50 percent higher mortality, and this excess mortality occurs mainly at night,” and that the use of sleeping pills leads to increased falls at night and injuries such as broken hips.”

Another study of nearly half a million people in the UK found that so-called “night owls” were 10 percent more likely to die during those same hours. They had higher rates of mental health disorders, diabetes, and neurological conditions, were more likely to experience psychological stress and abuse drugs and alcohol — all factors that can lead to death.

Less scientific reasons

For some folks, though, the reasons behind the plethora of overnight deaths are less science-based. McFadden suggests that the quiet, darkness, and peace help people to let go. Typically, they aren’t surrounded by family members or interrupted by healthcare staff, and there are fewer distractions to keep them tethered to the outside world. 

“There’s less people kind of trying to hold you there,” she says in her video.

Others believe there are religious, spiritual, and even mythological reasons behind the wee-hour deaths, all tied to the association of sleep and death. “Sleep” is often used as a metaphor for death in the Christian, Hindu, and Islamic faiths, and in ancient Greek mythology, Sleep was the twin brother of Death.

Despite the inconvenience of those overnight removals, most of us would appreciate the fact that a loved one dies in the peaceful state of sleep. We also appreciate the deathcare professionals in whom we entrust our loved one’s removal and care.

We noticed in this article last week that a consumer group has asked for the removal of funeral directors as “the middleman in cremations, saying it’s costing people money”.  Among other things, the group says “it gives them (funeral directors) the opportunity to “hook people into a package deal” charging grieving families for things they did not need”.

This discussion is taking place in New Zealand where 80% of the deaths are cremations and funeral directors are required to facilitate a “sign-off” for the cremation approval by a second doctor after a physician has already made the notes about the cause of death.

It appears, from what I read, that funeral directors then charge a service fee for this task and the process allows them to get in front of families who don’t necessarily want to be sold or educated about additional services available.

The consumer group is asking for a system in which the current online death documents system could solve this problem by uploading the first doctor’s information into the cloud from which the second doctor could access the information and sign the cremation authorization without the need of a funeral director.  According to the linked article a recent health system report stated:

“. . . .the current process and regulations impose high costs on the public and create a barrier for people who want to organise their own funerals, particularly when their loved ones are about to be cremated.  It encouraged the ministry to prioritise further work on updating the cremation regulations, and requested a report on the planned changes to regulations before the end of this parliamentary term.  We also encourage the ministry to consider making all documents relating to cremation available on the Death Documents website. We note that the Ministry’s planned work could address the current barriers to DIY funerals.”

As can be expected, the New Zealand Funeral Director’s Association refuted the consumer groups thesis that it was this activity that produced high costs of services in New Zealand.  Part of their answer came in this article from RNZ titled “Changing paperwork is not going to fix funeral debt”:  Association slams call to remove funeral directos as cremation middlemen“.

Related Article ––  High cost of dying under scrutiny as Members of Parliament call for change.  The Spinoff (New Zealand)

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  While this argument is taking place in a country with less than 40,000 deaths annually I think the repercussions may be heard in more populated places as time moves forward.

I was priviliged to see just how large a metropolitan funeral and cremation company can be in May when I had the privilige to tour a “Care Center” of a large American death care consolidator.  I was somewhat blown away by the facility and volume of the operations in this care center located in a suburb of a large American city.

The brand new facility looked like a modern office building from the outside, but inside housed three crematory retorts, a preparation room, a refrigerated room with a capacity of probably over 300 bodies, and an inside the building drive-thru transportation hub for hearses and vans to load and unload human remains.  It also housed a reception viewing area for a family that might wish to identify and see their loved one loaded into the crematory.  And, the complete facility was absolutely immaculate.

My tour guide let me know that this care center handles about 7,000 cremation cases a year for their locations in this metropolitan area.  I saw what I would guess was about 75 cardboad box encased bodies ready for cremation in the cooler area.  One side of the cooler area had containers with “Red stickers” on the boxes and the other side had containers with “Green stickers” on the boxes.

I learned that the “Red sticker” boxes did not yet have authorizations complete for cremation while the “Green sticker” boxes had completed authorizations and were ready to be placed in the crematories.  I also learned that there were two full-time staff members that did nothing but make sure authorizations were complete.

In all, it was an impressive operation.

Some interesting thoughts that I had —  There was at least one licensed funeral director on site as well as other technicians.  However, in a state where removal transportation specialists are allowed and the cremations are allowed to be arranged online, is it possible that a family member would never have to have a discussion with a funeral director? . . And, it may be by their choice that the family has that option.

I found that an interesting question.  Some families would probably want to have that conversation and arrange some type of memorial and/or memorialization but there might also be some families that, as suggested in the New Zealand situation, may simply want a “Do it yourself” service or no service at all and be content with not talking with a funeral director.

I’m still working on my “Attitude adjustment” —  I did my work in a funeral home that served “one family at a time”.  And that is the way it was some weeks — we might only serve one family in a slow week.  So, to see the volume of deceased human beings in this facility was “eye-opening” to me.

This consolidator, as it appeared to me, was also serving “one family at a time”.  The only difference with my funeral business was I, on average served about one family at a time per day. . . . .and this company, through this facility, was serving one family at a time every 75 minutes.

They were, however, and as far as I could see doing it like I did — with dignity and respect and, most importantly,  the way the family had asked for it to be done.

It made me realize that the way families are choosing and going-thru the Death Care operation and cycle today is very different than from when I first started.

It also made me think — will we become like New Zealand where it seems that some consumers would prefer to be “slightly distant” and not interact with funeral directors?

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