It's no secret that having more sex is tied to a ton of health benefits. In fact, studies have connected the more-than-occasional romp with better physical, emotional, and mental health so often that it really seems like science wants us all to be getting it on all the time.
Yet another new study, published in the journal Emotion, points to the emotional boost having frequent sex can give you (in case you needed more convincing).
The researchers gathered 152 college students and asked them to keep a daily diary of their sexcapades as well as how they were feeling for three weeks, as Maxim reports. Questions that were asked to the students included how much meaning they felt in life as well as whether their current mood was more positive or negative. Looking at the diaries, the researchers noticed that having sex one day increased the odds that these students would have a happy day the next. After having sex, the students reported more meaning in life, more positive mood states, and fewer negative mood states.
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However, this good mood boost was only temporary and lasted just one day after a student had sex (and, in case you were wondering, better quality of sex did correlate to a better mood).
Interestingly, when researchers looked at emotions and sex the other way around — meaning they checked if being in a better mood correlated to a better chance of having sex — they found no connection.
So, the clear takeaway from this study is: more sex = a happier person.
Now, remember that this is a limited study. Testing 152 mostly heterosexual (according to the study) college students by no means makes this study relevant to the entire population, and it should really be taken with a grain of salt. Some people, for instance, aren't interested in having sex that often or at all. Some people physically aren't able to have much sex. And just because sex made a group of college kids happier doesn't mean that not having sex makes these people unhappy.
So, as with any other data to come out about sex, our advice is: you do you — and maybe also some other people, if you want to.
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