Despite living in a so-called hook-up society and the semi-recent invention of Tinder, we’re actually having less sex than ever before.
Now, a new study has revealed the reason we’re not getting down. The BBC Radio 5 Live online survey found that stress is the number one problem in the bedroom.
In the study, 45 per cent of people said stress negatively impacted their sex life, 32 per cent named physical health as a reason and 26 per cent listed mental health issues.
Not surprisingly (to parents), 20 per cent of people rated having kids as a factor.
Other issues included work (18 per cent), social media (10 per cent) and reality TV (seven per cent). The study also found a quarter of women said they were not satisfied with their sex lives.
It’s almost ironic that we’re not having sex because we’re stressed, but one of the best stress-relievers is sex.
Relationship therapist Ellen Brady had a surprising piece of advice for reinvigorating your sex life. “Ban sex,” she told the BBC. “Because whatever you’ve been doing sexually it’s gone wrong, so you want to wipe it out and start again, and just reconnect emotionally and in terms of intimacy.”
Maybe, just maybe, if we all stopped stressing about not having sex, we might start having more of it.
This article originally appeared on Marie Claire