Here’s what your poo says about you, and why doing a number two in the morning is scientifically sound. No, you’re not imagining it. People really are more likely to poo in the morning, shortly after breakfast.
Researchers have actually studied this. But why mornings? What if you tend to poo later in the day? And is it worth training yourself to be a morning pooper? To understand what makes us poo when we do, we need to consider a range of factors including our body clock, gut muscles and what we have for breakfast. Here’s what the science says.
So morning poos are real? In a UK study from the early 1990s, researchers asked nearly 2000 men and women in Bristol about their bowel habits. The most common time to poo was in the early morning. The peak time was 7-8am for men and about an hour later for women.
The researchers speculated that the earlier time for men was because they woke up earlier for work. About a decade later, a Chinese study found a similar pattern. Some 77 per cent of the almost 2500 participants said they did a poo in the morning.
But why the morning? There are a few reasons. The first involves our circadian rhythm – our 24-hour internal clock that helps regulate bodily processes, such as digestion. For healthy people, our internal clock means the muscular contractions in our colon follow a distinct rhythm.
There’s minimal activity in the night. The deeper and more restful our sleep, the fewer of these muscle contractions we have. It’s one reason .
