Charity’s helplines ‘busiest’ around midnight

More than a third of people feeling depressed or suicidal look for help in the middle of the night, the Samaritans have revealed.

Midnight to 1am on Friday and Saturday nights were the busiest times of the week for the charity’s helplines while 37% of all calls in the past year were made from midnight to 6am.

But the organisation said the number of people looking for help is down from an all-time-high of just over 400,000 when the country’s economic collapse was at its worst in 2010/11.