Once-a-Week Sex Makes for Happy Couples
More than that doesn't add to connubial bliss, research shows
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- An active sex life is important to couples' happiness, and they don't have to go at it like rabbits -- those who make love once a week are happiest, a new study suggests.
More frequent sex isn't a buzzkill for a relationship. It just doesn't pack the same punch, Canadian researchers report Nov. 18 in the journalSocial Psychological and Personality Science.
"Our research suggests that couples do not need to aim to engage in sex as frequently as possible but instead aim to maintain a connection with their partner," said study lead author Amy Muise, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
The findings are based on three studies involving more than 30,000 people in all.
At issue: How does sexual frequency affect well-being?
Not surprisingly, the research showed that sex is good, and more sex is better, Muise said. Regularly having sex emerged as even more important to a happy relationship than money was.
But researchers haven't understood whether there's a point where more sex stops translating to more happiness, she said.
To gain insight, Muise and her colleagues first looked at results from a survey conducted in the United States every other year between 1989 and 2012. They focused on responses from more than 25,000 people, aged 18 to 89.
Among other things, participants answered questions about sexual frequency (from not at all to four or more times a week) and their perceptions of their happiness.
In a second study, researchers surveyed 335 people online, most of whom were heterosexual. Finally, they analyzed findings from a third study, a 14-year survey of U.S. married heterosexual couples.
Among couples, those who had more sex were happier to a point. The boosts in well-being "leveled off once couples reached a frequency of about once a week," Muise said. "It wasn't bad to engage in sex more frequently than once a week. It just wasn't associated with greater well-being on average."
The researchers saw no differences in the findings based on gender, age or length of relationship.
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