Having sex once a week may be “optimal” for happiness a research has suggested.
The research carried out by Amy Muise, an assistant professor of psychology and her team at York University in Canada found that couples who have a lot of sex tend to experience better wellbeing.
“Sex is associated with feeling more satisfied in a relationship,” Muise said.
But beyond once a week, the wellbeing benefits of sex seem to level off. That’s not to say that having sex a few times a week (or more) is a bad thing. It just doesn’t seem to make couples any happier, she added.
Of course, it’s hard to show cause and effect when it comes to sex and your health. Leading a happy, healthy lifestyle likely leads to more sex; the act itself doesn’t necessarily improve your physical and mental wellness.
Still, whether sex is a symptom or a cause of wellbeing, a healthy sex life is worth the work.
If you’re falling short of that once-a-week quota, making an effort to have more sex could be a good idea, as long as it doesn’t feel too forced.
A 2015 study from Carnegie Mellon University concluded that couples who tried to have more sex did not feel happier—but that study’s author, economics and psychology professor George Loewenstein, takes his own findings with a grain of salt.
“In retrospect, I believe that this study was misguided,” he says. “Instructing couples to double their frequency might have turned sex into a chore for them,” Loewenstein noted.
Muise also points out that the couples in Loewenstein’s study were already having sex once a week. “It’s possible that they were already maximizing the association [between sex and] wellbeing,” she said.“I still think that couples could benefit from a bit of outside encouragement to have more sex,” Loewenstein said.
hat’s especially true if you and your significant other have been together for a long time.
“When a couple has been together for some time, the mere presence of the other person, even unclothed, ceases to be exciting or arousing.” But that doesn’t mean doing it won’t be just as fun and invigorating as it used to be, he said. It may just take a little more work to get your fires started.
