Have you ever experienced that warm fuzzy feeling after sex? That contentment and satisfaction which you continue to feel long after the physical act of sex has ended? Researchers Meltzer and colleagues (in press) have recently studied this “sexual afterglow,” how long it lasts, and what its duration means for your relationship. They presented their findings at the annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology last week.
What is “Sexual Afterglow?”
Meltzer defines sexual afterglow as “enhanced sexual satisfaction that lingers following sexual activity.” She and her colleagues posit that this afterglow functions to promote bonding in romantic couples.
The researchers studied over 200 newlywed couples from Texas and Florida. The couples were recruited via letters, Facebook, fliers, and word of mouth; all were married for less than six months. The researchers measured couples’ marital satisfaction as well as when couples engaged in sex over a fourteen day period. The couples also reported their sexual satisfaction each day during the study, whether they had sex on that day or not.
Interestingly, men and women did not differ in their sexual satisfaction, and, not surprisingly, when couples had sex on a given day, they reported enhanced sexual satisfaction that day. But Meltzer and colleagues were not only interested in the couples’ satisfaction on the day of sexual activity, but how long that sexual satisfaction would last. They found that couples’ increased sexual satisfaction lasted not only 24 hours later, but also 48 hours later.
Although the researchers didn’t measure biological or neurological variables in this study, they believe that sex activates dopamine and oxytocin receptors in the brain. These neurochemicals are associated with the experience of romantic love.
What Your Afterglow Reveals About Your Relationship
Interestingly, although both husbands and wives generally felt less marital satisfaction over the early months of their marriage, the longer their sexual afterglow lasted, the more marital satisfaction they reported over time. According to the researchers, this finding suggests that enhanced sexual afterglow contributed to the couples’ relationship satisfaction. The researchers stress that because the couples in this research were all young and almost entirely heterosexual, future research will be needed to explore the sexual afterglow among older couples as well as gay and lesbian couples. However the researchers speculate that older couples in longer term relationships may actually have a longer sexual afterglow, supporting their sustained relationships. In their future research Meltzer and her colleagues hope to explore the relationship between sexual afterglow and infideltiy, speculating that a longer afterglow may be associated with a reduced risk of cheating.
This research is currently in press and will be published in the journal Psychological Science.
Source: psychologytoday.com
For more information about “Oxytocin” please see: “What is Oxytocin and How Does It Affect the Body?“