Are you having enough sex? A recent study found that, although married people or people in committed relationships who had more sex tended to report feeling happier, the benefit leveled off at a sexual frequency of once a week. Those who said they did the deed four or more times a week did not report feeling any happier than those who had trysts only weekly. The study found that sex could boost happiness because it makes people feel more satisfied in their relationship, based on survey data from two separate cohorts, including 2, married couples in the U.
National Survey of Families and Households. However, there are a couple of rubs with this research, Muise said. One is that it is not clear which came first, sex or happiness. It may be that people who have sex once a week or more were happier in their relationship and life to begin with, and not that the sex helped make them happy.
Or both may be true: Sex enhances happiness and happiness enhances sex. The other catch is that, although a weekly romp might be just what some people need, it might be too much or too little for others. For some couples, the question of how often they should have sex might not have come up, which could be a sign they feel sufficiently close and satisfied β or that they are just too busy or disconnected to think about it.
Marin avoids prescribing an amount of sex that couples should have, because every couple is different, and instead recommends couples test it out for themselves. As for those lucky couples that are content with how often they get busy under the sheets, one study suggests they may not want to change a thing.
Researchers asked couples that were having sex about six times a month to double down on getting down. Couples that doubled their sexual frequency were in worse moods and enjoyed sex less at the end of three months than couples who had stuck to their usual level of bedroom activity. That is another reason Marin does not make recommendations to couples about sexual frequency β for fear they could worry they are not living up to expectations and lose their mojo.
