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Why do we need sex?
Sex is a basic human need and is important for emotional well-being. On a physical level, having good, healthy sex is beneficial for your health. It helps you have:
- Less depression and anxiety
- Lower blood pressure
- Better heart health
- Lower risk for heart disease
- A better immune system
- Pain relief
- Better sleep
- Less stress
- Greater self-esteem
Part of these positive effects happen because your body releases hormones like oxytocin during sex, which boost your mood and make you feel great.
That said, studies show us that it’s not necessarily the act of sex by itself that is so beneficial. In fact, sex through masturbation doesn’t give you as high of a hormone release as sex with your partner.
You’ll still get some benefits either way, but sex in a loving relationship causes greater physical and emotional benefits.
How does sex make a relationship stronger?
Safe sex in loving relationships leads to greater happiness and well-being for individuals and couples. It’s not just sex that is important, though. Instead, it’s the affection that sex brings to your relationship.
In several large studies, researchers have found that regular kissing, hugging, and touching between you and your partner make stronger relationships. It promotes intimacy, which is the feeling of closeness and connectedness that helps build trust and safety.
Cuddling and affection can even have physical benefits. Your body will release those feel-good hormones even when you don’t have an orgasm. Simple things like sex talk and kissing can give you a hormone boost.
Moreover, while sex helps build closeness, affection also leads to healthy sex. It’s a two-way street that leads to positive emotions. When you’re having sex and engaging in sexual activities, you’re likely to feel happier and more satisfied in your relationship. Your relationship is consequently likely to be stronger. At the same time, when you feel close to your partner, you’re also more likely to have sex.
Women tend to need emotional connection and closeness to be in the mood, but both men and women need intimacy in general. Higher amounts of intimacy are linked to higher sexual desire and more sex for both male and female partners in long-term relationships.
Lots of people assume that more sex means better relationships, and that’s true, but only up to a point. Studies have found that partners who have sex once a week are happier and have more satisfied relationships than those who only have sex once a month. Having more than that, though, isn’t always better.
Quality of sex also matters. A 2016 study talked to different groups of partners who had satisfying sex once or twice a week versus those who had terrible sex once or twice a week. The people who were having a lot of great sex had were doing better.
These respondents:
- Were more in sync with each other
- Had a greater sense of love
- Had a greater sense of affection
- Displayed more variety in sex activities
Is it okay to have sex every day?
So, the billion-dollar question: 365 nights of sex—can it strengthen a marriage, and is it healthy? If you consent to daily sex and you enjoy it, you can have sex every day. The research shows that more than once a week doesn’t necessarily make your relationship better, though.
Research also shows that lots of sex when you’re single isn’t always better, either. This is probably because close relationships are a key to happiness apart from sex and because sex when you’re single is more complicated.
Can sex revive your relationship?
There are many factors to healthy and satisfying relationships, including respect and good communication. Sometimes, you might feel distant or disconnected from your partner, like you’ve grown apart.
If so, you’re not alone. Many people have this experience, and it can be caused by different things, including:
- Having babies or small children, which leads to less private time, as well as exhaustion
- Working long hours and having less time together
- A longer relationship where the newness has worn off
- Poor communication
A dip in your relationship can lead to less sex, but lots of people also stop having sex without having a relationship breakdown.
Sex is important even so, and it can bolster your partnership and your sense of well-being, though it’s not a cure for problems. The key is affection.
Studies show that as long as you keep love alive and active in your relationship, you can balance out the effects of not having sex. These studies also show that if you have a lull in your sex life, turning up your affection can bring your sex life back.
The Surprising Health Benefits of Sex
The perks of sex extend well beyond the bedroom…
Sex is not only pleasurable, did you know it’s also good for you? It’s true. The benefits of sex range from slashing stress levels to lowering your risk of cancer and heart attacks. Sex facilitates bonding and feelings of intimacy with your partner. This kind of connectedness does more than make you feel warm and fuzzy, it actually reduces anxiety and boosts your overall health.
How would you like a stronger immune system or better sleep? Action between the sheets can help you get all of this and more.
1. Get Less Colds & Boost Your Immune System
More sex equals fewer sick days. That’s what the results of studies comparing sexually active people to those who are not sexually active say. Sex boosts your body’s ability to make protective antibodies against bacteria, viruses, and other germs that cause common illnesses. Of course, there’s more to cultivating a robust immune system than having a healthy sex life. Eating right, exercising, getting adequate sleep, and keeping up to date with vaccinations all contribute to having strong and healthy defenses against contagious illnesses.
2. Boost Your Libido
Believe it or not, the best antidote for a waning libido is to have sex! Having sex actually boosts desire. And if pain and vaginal dryness make it challenging for some women to have sex, sexual activity can help combat these problems, too. Sex boosts vaginal lubrication, blood flow to the vagina, and elasticity of the tissues, all of which make for better, more pleasurable sex and heightened libido.
3. Improve Women’s Bladder Control
Urinary incontinence affects about 30% of women at some point in life. Having regular orgasms works a woman’s pelvic floor muscles, strengthening and toning them. Orgasms activate the same muscles that women use when doing Kegel exercises. Having stronger pelvic muscles means there’s less risk of accidents and urine leaks.
4. Lower Your Blood Pressure
Are you one of the millions of people who suffer from high blood pressure? Sex can help you lower it. Many studies have documented a link between intercourse specifically (not masturbation) and lower systolic blood pressure, the first number that appears on a blood pressure test. That’s good news for individuals looking for an easy adjunct to lifestyle (diet, exercise, stress reduction) and medication strategies to get blood pressure into a healthy range. Sex sessions cannot replace blood-pressure lowering drugs to control high blood pressure, but they may be a useful addition.
5. Counts as Exercise
Like every other kind of physical activity, sex burns calories, too! Sitting and watching TV burns about 1 calorie per minute. Having sex increases your heart rate and utilizes various muscle groups, burning about 5 calories per minute. Regular sex cannot replace sessions at the gym, but a having an active, healthy sex life is a nice way to get some extra physical activity.
6. Lower Heart Attack Risk
Want a healthier heart? Have more sex. Sexual activity helps keep levels of hormones, like estrogen and testosterone, in check. When these hormones are out of balance, conditions like heart disease and osteoporosis may develop. When it comes to protecting heart health by having sex, more is better. One study in men showed that those who had sex at least 2 times a week were 50% less likely to die of heart disease than their less sexually active peers.
7. Lessen Pain
Sexual stimulation (including masturbation) and orgasm can help keep pain at bay. Both activities can reduce pain sensation and increase your pain threshold. Orgasms result in the release of hormones that can help block pain signals. Some women report that self-stimulation through masturbation can reduce symptoms of menstrual cramps, arthritis, and even headache.
8. May Reduce Prostate Cancer Risk
There are male-specific health benefits of sex, too. One study showed that men who had frequent ejaculations (defined as 21 times a month or more) were less likely to develop prostate cancer than those who had fewer ejaculations. It did not matter if the ejaculations occurred through intercourse, masturbation, or nocturnal emissions. Of course, there’s more to prostate cancer risk than frequency of ejaculations, but this was one interesting finding.
9. Improve Sleep
Sex can help you sleep better. That’s because orgasm simulates the release of a hormone called prolactin, a natural sleep aide. Prolactin promotes feelings of relaxation and sleepiness. This is just one of the reasons you may notice that you have an easier time falling asleep after having sex.
10. Relieve Stress
Sex is a great stress reliever. That’s because touching, hugging, sexual intimacy, and emotional attachment stimulate the release of “feel good” substances that promote bonding and calmness. Sexual arousal also releases substances that stimulate the reward and pleasure system in the brain. Fostering intimacy and closeness can help relieve anxiety and boost overall health.
11. Burn Calories
Add sex to the list of activities that burns calories. One study in young men and women showed that sex burns about 108 calories per half hour! That’s enough to burn off 3, 570 calories – that’s a little more than the number of calories in one pound – in 32 half-hour sessions.
12. Improve Cardiovascular Health
Better cardiovascular health may be as close as the bedroom. While some people may worry that physical exertion from sex may lead to a stroke, science suggests otherwise. In a 20-year-long study of more than 900 men, researchers found that frequency of sex did not increase stroke risk. They found that sex protects against fatal heart attacks, too. Men who had sex at least twice per week reduced their risk of a fatal heart attack by 50% compared to gents who had sex less than once a month.
13. Strengthen Your Well-Being
Humans are wired for social connection. Interaction with friends and family boosts your overall health and well-being. Close connections with others, including your partner, make you happier and healthier compared to those who are less well connected. Studies prove it!
14. Improve Intimacy and Relationships
You can hug and cuddle your way to develop warm, intimate relationships. Sex and orgasms stimulate the release of a hormone called oxytocin that helps people bond. This “love hormone” as it’s commonly known, helps build feelings of love and trust. In a study of premenopausal women, the more time the ladies spent canoodling and hugging their husbands or partners, the higher their oxytocin levels were. The hormone inspires fuzzy feelings and generosity, too.
15. Look Younger
Forget surgery and anti-aging creams, sex keeps you younger looking, too. Regular sex stimulates the release of estrogen and testosterone, hormones that keep you young and vital looking. Estrogen promotes younger-looking skin and lustrous locks. In one study, judges viewed participants through a one-way mirror and guessed their ages. People who had sex at least 4 times per week with a regular partner were perceived to be 7 to 12 years younger than they actually were.
16. Live Longer
What’s the secret to living longer? It may be having more sex. In a decade-long study of over 1,000 middle-aged men, those who had the most orgasms had half the death rate of those who did not ejaculate frequently. Of course many factors contribute to longevity, but having an active sex life may be an easy, pleasurable way to extend your lifespan.
17. Boost Brainpower
The benefits of sex truly extend from head to toe. An active sex life might actually make your brain work better. Researchers found that sex switches the brain into a more analytical mode of and thinking processing. And animal studies suggest that sex enhances areas of the brain involved in memory.
18. Sex Makes Fertilization Easier
When it comes to expanding your family, practice makes perfect. A study performed at a fertility center found that men who had daily ejaculations for a week had higher-quality sperm than those who did not ejaculate daily. Men in the daily ejaculation group had sperm with DNA that was less fragmented than the DNA from sperm of men who ejaculated less frequently. Less fragmented DNA implies healthier DNA. And hearty sperm that have healthy DNA are more likely to fertilize an egg.
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