The relaxing benefits of sex
Always a victim of stage fright? Forget miracle potions or personal development programmes... According to an American study, having sex is a great stress reliever!
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The night before speaking in public, your hands are sweaty and your voice trembles. On previous occasions you’ve tried staring at one certain point in the audience and you’ve destroyed who knows how many anti-stress balls... to no avail.
Well here's a little trick that could change your life: having sex is apparently one of the best ways to keep calm and confident.
Peace, love and sex…
American psychologist Stuart Brody1 wanted to understand the influence of sexual activity on stress responses, through an evaluation of blood pressure. Surprising research subject? Let’s just say that scientific research methods can sometimes be quite unusual...
Approximately 50 people (24 women and 22 men) contributed to scientific progress by noting their most intimate information in a daily logbook: sexual intercourse with penetration, masturbation, other sex games... Following two weeks’ worth of written confessions, they carried out a stress test, which required speaking in public and carrying out mental calculations.
Those who had had sexual intercourse with penetration were less stressed and saw their blood pressure return to normal more quickly than those who had engaged in other sexual activities. Those who had preferred to abstain had the highest blood pressure when faced with the stressful situations.
According to Dr Brody, these benefits are well and truly different from each individual’s psychological traits. More frequent sexual relations are associated with higher benefits. “The effects are not attributable simply to the short-term relief afforded by orgasm, but rather, endure for at least a week,” stated the researcher in New Scientist2 magazine.
How does sex de-stress?
But how does making love keep you chilled out? Explanations remain quite confused for now. The soothing effect could be linked to the stimulation of different nerves during penetration (in particular the vagal nerve in charge of certain psychological processes). Another hypothesis is based on the release of the hormone oxytocin during sex.
Dr Brody also highlights that these conclusions have more meaning if we adopt an essentially evolutionist point of view: sexual intercourse with penetration is associated with many positive effects in order to ensure the survival of the human race.
So if you’ve got an important meeting tomorrow morning, you know what you should be doing this evening…
1. Biological Psychology, Vol 71: 214-222
2. New Scientist, January 2006
Copyright © 2010 Doctissimo
Posted 02.05.2011
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