We know that more sex could help in bringing back your mojo in life. It’s scientifically proven and one study goes on to say that having sex once a week could make you feel as good as earning $50,000 per year. Yet, there has been little clarity on how the three letter magical word makes it happen. In other words, questions remain on how exactly sex and happiness are related. A recent study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin contended that more than sex, the snuggling you indulge in with your partner – before, during and after sex matters.
Anik Debrot, the study’s co-author and a postdoctoral fellow at University of Toronto said that an important reason of why sex is associated with happiness is because it promotes the feeling of affection with your partner. Thus, it is important to understand the quality of the bond you share with your partner to assess the benefits of sexual intercourse.
This research is made up of four different studies,
| Study | Participants |
| Study 1 | 335 people comprising of 138 men and 197 women |
| Study 2 | 74 couples from San Francisco’s Bay Area |
| Study 3 | 106 Swiss couples. 88% of which were married and all of them had a child under eight |
| Study 4 | 58 Swiss couples, majority of which included university students |
In the first study, the participants reported the frequency at which they had sex and engaged in affectionate touching, that included caressing, kissing and cuddling. On a scale of one to five, they also rated their life satisfaction. The second sample was asked to rate their propensity to feel positive emotions like contentment, joy, pride, awe and amusement. These studies concluded that more sex translates into increased happiness and life satisfaction. However, the relationship pivoted on affectionate touching, that is when the researchers considered affectionate touching in their predictive model – the correlation between sex and life satisfaction was insignificant. These results were consistent across participants’ age, relationship status and relationship duration.
The third and fourth studies adopted a “Dear Diary” approach and asked participants to tabulate their emotional state and sexual activity on digital devices throughout the day. The data which was collated after six months could be used to deduce that on days when people had sex, they were happier and experienced positive emotions immediately after the act and hours later as well. It, in turn, pointed towards the finding that sex promoted positive emotions. These positive emotions play a great part in helping us feel good in the immediate, short and long term.
So, it is simple to attain contentment from a personal relationship : communicate with your partner on his/her needs, take out enough time for intimacy and express your love in good proportions before, during and after sex.
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