More Sex Doesn't Mean More Happiness

It turns out that sex won't make you as happy as self-help books claim. Scientists have discovered that increased frequency of sex actually led to a decline in wanting for and the enjoyment of sex.

The researchers looked at 128 healthy individuals between the ages of 35 and 65. These individuals were in married male-female couples. The researchers randomly assigned the couples to one of two groups. The first group received no instructions on sexual frequency, and the second group was asked to double their weekly sexual intercourse frequency.

Each member of the participating couples completed three different types of surveys. At the beginning to the study, they answered questions to establish baselines. Daily during the experimental period, the participants answered questions online to measure health behaviors, happiness levels and the occurrence, type and enjoyableness of sex.

So what did they find? Couples that had more sex were not happier; instead, there was a small decrease in happiness. In addition, they had lower sexual desire and a decrease in sexual enjoyment.

"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," said George Loewentstein, one of the researchers, in a news release. "If we ran the study again, and could afford to do it, we would try to encourage the subjects into initiating more sex in ways that put them in a sexy frame of mind, perhaps with baby-sitting, hotel rooms or Egyptian sheets, rather than directing them to do so."

That said, the study does suggest that increasing sexual frequency may not actually lead to more happiness. Instead, increasing happiness or desire may actually be the key.

The findings are published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

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