By Taryn Hillin | Fusion
If having sex makes one happy, one might assume that having more sex will lead to more happiness. Currently having sex twice a week? Why not aim for daily!
Related Article:How Much Sex Is Too Much? Doctors and Sex Experts Weigh In
But this isn’t always the case. After all, we face a limited number of hours in the day and we have a limited supply of energy—so where’s the sweet spot? What’s the ~perfect~ amount of sex for maximizing happiness?
In a new study, researchers at the University of Toronto-Mississauga in Canada examined data from more than 30,000 Americans collected over four decades to attempt to answer this very question. They found that, for people in relationships, more sex is generally associated with more happiness—but only up to a certain point.
That point, they discovered? Having sex once a week appears to be the greatest bang for your buck.
“Although more frequent sex is associated with greater happiness, this link was no longer significant at a frequency of more than once a week,” said Amy Muise, a social psychologist and the lead researcher, in a press release.
Related Article: 17 Ways to Have More Meaningful Sex
Muise and her team came to this conclusion after analyzing data from two big American surveys—the General Social Survey (GSS), a nationally representative survey conducted almost annually, and the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH).
In both surveys, participants were asked questions about both their sexual frequency and their happiness levels, with questions such as, “Taken all together, how would you say things are these days—would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?” Some participants also answered more general questions about life satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and income.
Notably, in one analysis, the researchers also compared how income was linked to participants’ happiness versus how sexual frequency was linked to their happiness—and they found that “the increase in well-being gained from engaging in sex less than once a month compared to once a week is larger than the increase in well-being gained from making between $15,000-$25,000 per year and making $50,000-$75,000 per year.”
