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Topics: Mental Health, Science, Sex and Relationships
Michael Slavin
Topics: Mental Health, Science, Sex and Relationships
According to a new study, there is an exact ‘optimal’ number of times you should be having sex every week – and if you hit that number, it may even help with depression.
Though it may seem obvious to most people, there are lots of clear links between having regular sex and better overall wellbeing.
This is not the first time scientists have come up with an ideal amount of sex to be having, with one suggesting an ideal number of times per month by age, and another suggesting the right amount if you’re in a happy relationship.
While many studies examine the beneficial elements of sex from a physical perspective, this new one factors in emotional wellbeing.
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The paper was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, conducted by researchers from The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University and Shantou University Medical College.
Within this, they studied whether ‘sexual activity might serve as a behavioural indicator related to mental health’.
Their sample size was predominantly based in the US, across multiple demographics among ‘young and middle aged’ people between the ages of 20 and 59.
The answer, essentially, was yes, but it’s a bit more complicated than that.
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The research came out to the conclusion that people who have sex at least once a week are less likely to suffer from depression.
It further found that having sex once or twice a week is the ‘optimal amount’, offering the greatest psychological benefits.
Researchers did, however, describe a ‘saturation effect’, essentially stating that the psychological benefits of sex ‘peaked’ at a frequency of 52 to 103 times a year, essentially about once or twice a week.
This is not to say that you wouldn’t be happy if you’re having sex five times a week (I think many would be jealous of this), but that it gives a similar psychological benefit as once or twice a week.
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The scientists behind the study were clear, however, in their note, that this does not yet 100% confirm a negative correlation between depression and frequent sexual activity.
Information gathered in the study was ‘cross-sectional’, essentially meaning it was only taken from one specific point in time rather than a regular study of the changing correlation between sex and mental health.
The study did still, however, argue that sexual frequency is a ‘useful’ behavioural marker for mental health.
Sex releases endorphins and can lead to stress relief, intimacy, and emotional bonding, all of which contribute to more positive mental health.
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So if you were up in the air on how much to be having sex, get yourself to a place where it’s happening once or twice a week and you’re golden it seems.