New research from the University of Toronto suggests that having more sex doesn't really make people any happier.
A new research study performed at the University of Toronto suggests that more frequent sex doesn’t equal more happiness as an individual or as a couple. The research found that a couple’s happiness seems to reach its pinnacle when they have physical relations once a week, but they become no more happier if they try and increase the frequency.
More, apparently, isn’t really better, at least with regard to overall happiness, reports The Guardian. The research team has exploded the long held cultural myth that more sex is always better with regard to generating happiness. The research was carried out between 1989 and 2012, and was based on the results of studying 25,000 Americans. The goal of the research was to determine if more sex meant more happiness.
The researchers asked if someone can ever have enough sex. For the Americans they studied, five times a month seemed to be the magic happiness number. Apparently, according to the researchers this is the first such study that has tried to relate the frequency of sex to some manner of overall well being. The University of Toronto researchers concluded that their study showed that there was no correlation at all between the frequency of sex and well being.
The study focused on committed couples but did say that single people did tend to have sex more frequently than couples and that it could be the focus of some future research. It also tends to fly in the face of another long held myth which says that married people have more sex.
Why having physical relations more frequently doesn’t make couples happier is pure speculation for the research team. All they really know is that people who said they had sex about once a week, or five times a month or so, were reportedly happier once they had achieved that rhythm of agreed upon and expected frequency.
A previous study done a year ago asked couples to double their rate of physical intimacy. The study showed that they were having sex 40 percent or so more frequently but found they were less happy. They said that they had less energy overall and that the sex they were having was of a lower quality.
