Too much sex does not make people happier, scientists have claimed.
As well as proving what was already know, that too little nookie does nothing to lift your mood, boffins claim to have discovered that increasing the amount you usually have could induce minor depression.
An academic team has just published the findings from its extensive research "between the sheets".
According to a report by Tech Times, it seems if you think getting lots of sex is a key to happiness, you may need to think again.
The researchers from Carnegie Mellon University said that while people with healthy sex lives are generally happy, it's not necessarily linked to the amount of sex they're having.
They investigated if there is a causal relationship between sexual frequency and happiness, by getting 128 couples into two groups.
One group had the tough task of doubling their normal weekly intercourse frequency over 12 weeks.
The others had to reduce how much they had for the same period.
They then used online questionnaires to track the couples' happiness levels over the three months.
By the end, those upping their bedroom antics actually experienced a slight decrease in their happiness, the researchers reported in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
The academics found having more frequent sex didn't decrease the desire for it or enjoyment, but instead, they suggested, the slight decrease in happiness was likely down to the fact of being asked to do something more rather than letting it happen naturally.
Study investigator George Lowenstein said: "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.
"If we ran the study again, and could afford to do it, we would try to encourage 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."
Lowenstein admits believing many couples need to have more sex, and increasing the frequency of intercourse - in the right way, of course - can increase happiness in a relationship.
Study co-author Tamar Krishnamurti says the findings could help couples increase their happiness by improving their sex lives, and not necessarily in terms of how often they engage in the act.
Quality can be as important as quantity, she suggests. "Instead of focusing on increasing sexual frequency to the levels they experienced at the beginning of a relationship, couples may want to work on creating an environment that sparks their desire and makes the sex that they do have even more fun," she said.
