Stress in life is inevitable. You’ve probably developed a pattern of dealing with the lows in life. Maybe you have a few comfort foods, turn to your friends, or work through a downturn by going for a run. Research suggests that there’s one particularly effective stress-reliever, and it’s in your bedroom.
Sex can make a bad mood better and reduce your overall anxiety. Not only does sex help increase your resilience to stress, it decreases feelings of loneliness and disengagement. In today’s busy world, sex doesn’t have to be a guilty pleasure—having a sex life you enjoy is important to your physical and emotional health.
Says who?
- Researchers at Dartmouth College in England found that having sex once or more a month netted people the same amount of happiness as making $50,000 more per year.
- Researchers at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand determined that of all the ways people spend their time, sex is the jackpot—sex ranked highest in the categories of pleasure, meaning, and engagement.
- Researchers in Cambridge, England, showed that having sex at least three or four times a week is correlated with making more money than those for whom sexual activity is less frequent.
- The same researchers asserted that an absence of a sex life often precedes feelings of loneliness and decreased performance at work.
- Other studies have shown that when people have sex once every few days they are 55% more likely to report feeling happy.
What does this mean for your sex life?
The researchers who concluded that having more sex was linked with making more money used a popular theory in psychology to explain their findings. According to the theory, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you have fundamental needs that need to be met before you can transfer your focus to secondary needs, like financial success. In this theory, food, water, and sex are basic needs.
While there’s some disagreement about whether sex is a basic need, it’s clear that sex is more than a hobby and can be a powerful driving force. Caring about your sex life isn’t silly or extravagant; feeling regularly satisfied in bed could very well give you the boost you need to focus and excel at work. It makes sense that allowing yourself the freedom to give and receive intimate pleasure might change your overall outlook for the better.
How often you have sex is an important factor in your happiness, but it isn’t the only one. A study recently published in a sex-centric research journal says that your motives for having sex also matter when it comes to happiness. You’re more likely to feel good about going to bed with someone if you’re independently motivated—i.e. you think it will be fun or want to explore your sexuality. You’re less likely to feel good about a sexual experience if you’re motivated by wanting to avoid painful feelings or wanting someone to like you.
In other words, more sex contributes to happiness when it’s sex you truly want.
How else does sex affect happiness?
A good sex life has many other health benefits besides reducing stress. Sex has been linked to greater heart health, pain relief, better sleep, and healthier skin.
In today’s world, it can seem like there’s so much going on that it’s hard to stay present. Psychologists at Harvard tracked people’s happiness using an iPhone app and found that people reported being more focused and present while having sex than at any other time.
Keeping sight of the fact that pleasure, touch, and play are important ingredients in your life can make a big difference in how happy you feel on a daily basis.
