Daytime injuries heal twice as fast as wounds sustained at night

[Judi Lynn]

8 November 2017

By Andy Coghlan

If you’re going to get injured, try to do it during the day. Wounds seem to heal twice as fast if sustained during daytime hours rather than at night.

Nathaniel Hoyle of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, and his team have been investigating how the time of day affects wound healing, after they discovered that genes in a type of skin cell switch on and off during day-night cycles. These cells, called fibroblasts, help close up a wound after the skin has been cut, and some of the genes whose activity varied throughout the day were ones that help control this process.

Surprised by these day-night changes in gene activity, the team decided to analyse data collected by a specialist burn injuries unit at the University of Manchester, UK. They found that, on average, daytime wounds healed much faster – in only 17 days, compared with 28 days for similar burns sustained at night.

“We found that how well you heal depends on what time of the day you’re injured,” says Hoyle. “Healing in the day can occur 60-per-cent faster.”

More:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2152754-daytime-injuries-heal-twice-as-fast-as-wounds-sustained-at-night/?cmpid=ILC|NSNS|2017_webpush&utm_medium=ILC&utm_source=NSNS&utm_campaign=webpush-daytime-injuries

[msongs]

1. in the old days people hid during night. night was probably the most likely time for injuries as

one couldnt see predators, one couldnt see what one was doing. therefore most injury occurred during the active day and need more healing during daylight hours