Deaths from falling out of bed in the US

As Americans have eaten more eggs per capita, more of them have died falling out of bed, a correlation that suggests either that eggs make people restless sleepers or that the same aging population driving egg consumption back up is also falling out of bed more frequently. The coefficient is 0.851 across seventeen years, during which the nation cracked more eggs and took more falls with almost identical enthusiasm. The omelet is ready. The bed rail is not.

Per capita egg consumption grew from about 248 to over 280 eggs per year between 2005 and 2021, driven by the nutritional rehabilitation of eggs after decades of cholesterol-based guilt. Deaths from falling out of bed rose as the over-65 population grew by roughly 50 percent. Both trends are driven by the same aging demographic: older Americans are more likely to eat eggs (a cheap, protein-rich food recommended by geriatricians) and more likely to fall out of bed (fall risk increases dramatically after 65). The shared variable is not breakfast but biology—the same aging population drives both metrics upward.

Seventeen years of eggs and bed falls growing together is one of the more directly demographic correlations in this collection: the same aging population eats the eggs and takes the falls. The protein helps, the fall hurts, and the correlation between them is simply the biography of a generation getting older, one breakfast and one night at a time.