We know that sex is good, but how much of the goodness is enough? It turns out once per week may be enough to make couples happy.
A study conducted by researchers from University of Toronto Missisauga led by Amy Muise and published in Social Psychological and Personality Science suggests that although sex can improve the couple's well-being and level of happiness, sex once a week can already do the magic. Anything more than that, the association between happiness and sex levels off.
The researchers conducted three related studies on this subject. In their first study, they used a survey that looked into the romantic relationship among more than 20,000 Americans between the ages of 18 and 89, who were in a relationship, married or single.
Based on their analysis, the link between happiness and sex can be seen on couples only. The association was not significant among single people who were not in a relationship but were having sex.
In the second and third studies, which included a survey conducted on more than 300 people online, they found out that contrary to what many people think, the relationship between sex frequency and level of happiness is actually curvilinear, which means it is significant only up to a certain point. To be specific, while couples who have more sex are indeed happier, the link becomes less significant when they copulate more than once a week.
Interestingly, participants believed having more money could make them happier than having more sex, although they would pick sex once a week over money.
The study, which is correlation and not causal, needs more exploration, the researchers admit, including determining whether couples who have less sex could be happier if they have more. Meanwhile, they stress that the results should encourage couples not to feel pressured on how much sex they should get to be happy.
