Do you think the happiest people are having more sex than you? When you think of the deliriously happy couples you know do you assume they’re in and out of the bedroom more frequently than you wash your hair?
Well
apparently that’s all one big myth – a recent study has lifted the lid on just how often we should be having sex saying that many satisfied
couples actually spend their nights reading in their pajamas!
The
study, by the University of Toronto collected data from over 30,000 people to
see if happy couples have more or less sex than unhappy ones and published the
results in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Those
results say a sweet spot for happy couples everywhere is to have sex once a week.
They
did find that more sex meant more happiness, but that there was a limit to the
connection and that was the once-a-week mark. (This was the case regardless of
age, gender, or length of a relationship.)
So why does
satisfaction drop off after once a week? We’re afraid it remains a mystery, but
the study authors wrote that couples might feel satisfied if they're
having the amount of sex they think is "average" for couples like
them and previous studies have found that people tend to report having sex
approximately, yep, once a week! So couples who do it that often feel
pretty good about themselves.
Researchers did point out that their results shouldn't be the
‘be all and end all’ for more or less sex, but a reason to have a conversation
with your partner to find out if you're meeting each other's needs beneath
the sheets.
"Our
findings suggest that it's important to maintain an intimate connection with
your partner, but you don't need to have sex everyday as long as you're
maintaining that connection," researcher Amy Muise said in a statement.
"It's important to maintain an intimate connection with your partner
without putting too much pressure on engaging in sex as frequently as
possible."
Happy relationships by Flirtify x
If
you’re struggling to speak to your partner about sex and need some advice why not ask Emma Kenny - Closer columnist and
TV psychologist.
Simply comment below - please note comments will not be posted and will
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