London - When it comes to sex, more is not necessarily better. For couples are happiest when they make love once a week, a study has found.
More often than this does not increase feelings of well-being, the research showed, contradicting popular advice that couples can “kick-start their marriage” by having sex every day.
And when it comes to happiness, sex is more important than money, the researchers found in a separate study.
There was a bigger difference in happiness levels between people having sex once a week and those making love less than once a month than there was between those with higher and lower incomes.
Scientists analysed data collected at three time points over 14 years from more than 2 400 married couples in the US. Couples reported increasing satisfaction with their relationships as they increased the number of times they made love up to once a week – which coincidentally was the average amount married couples have sex.
One possibility is that couples are happy if they have the amount of sex that is considered the average amount – and feel upset if they have any less, the researchers found.
The researchers also speculate that once a week was the average amount because any more doesn’t make you happier. Lead researcher Dr Amy Muise, of the University of Toronto-Mississauga, Canada, said: “Although more frequent sex is associated with greater happiness, this link was no longer significant at a frequency of more than once a week.
“Our findings suggest that it’s important to maintain an intimate connection with your partner, but you don’t need to have sex every day as long as you’re maintaining that connection.”
The study did not establish whether having sex made couples happier or whether being in a happy relationship led to more lovemaking.
No association was found between sexual frequency and well-being in single people, said Dr Muise.
Once-weekly sex tended to be the typical frequency rate for established couples, according to the research, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Dr Muise added: “Our findings were consistent for men and women, younger and older people, and couples who had been married for a few years or decades.”
To assess whether sex or money had a greater impact on happiness, the researchers also conducted an online survey of 138 men and 197 women in long-term relationships.
They found that the gap between people who had sex once a week and people who had sex once a month was bigger than the difference in happiness between people on up to $25 000 (about R250 000) a year and those who had an income of $50 000 to $75 000.
Previous research has found that sex is effective at reducing stress levels, while a study in Pennsylvania found that students who had sex once or twice a week had higher levels of a key antibody that helps ward off illness by fighting bacteria and viruses.
Daily Mail