Researchers Find Having More Sex Doesn't Necessarily Make You Happier

Money can't buy happiness and as it turns out, neither can sex.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University analyzed the sexual habits of 64 heterosexual married couples over a three-month period to determine how sex affects their emotional states.

They discovered there's no real link between frequent sex and increased happiness, and occasionally, more sex may lead to a small decrease in happiness.

Obviously, they were shocked. They expected the results to indicate sex does make people happier.

The couples, all between the ages of 35 and 65, were split into two groups. One group was instructed to have sex twice as often as usual while the other group received no instructions in reference to their sexual habits.

Each day, the participants were required to answer daily online surveys measuring happiness, health and behavioral trends, as well as the occurrence and pleasure of sex.

The researchers found over the three-month period, the couples in the group instructed to have more sex actually suffered small decreases in happiness, as well as decreased libidos.

They also reported enjoying sex slightly less.

The researchers hypothesized it may not be the sex that was seemingly destroying their souls, but the nature of the experiment itself.

Study author George Loewenstein said,

Perhaps couples changed the story they told themselves about why they were having sex, from an activity voluntarily engaged in to one that was part of a research study. If we ran the study again…we would try to encourage subjects into initiating more sex in ways that put them in a sexy frame of mind.

However, they still concluded most couples could benefit from more sex, which is really all we wanted to hear, anyway.

Any excuse to get naked is a good excuse in my book.

Citations: More Sex May Not Lead To Increased Happiness New Study Says So Apparently Your Whole Life Has Been A Lie (Bustle)