Stress and overconsumption of food and alcohol leave people feeling less amorous, find researchers
If Christmas leaves you feeling less than amorous, you’re not alone. Whether it’s the stress of last-minute present buying or overconsumption of food and alcohol, interest in sex drops off in the run-up to Christmas, research suggests. However, this is compensated for by a big spike in sexual activity over the new year.
Researchers have long noticed differences in birthrates at various times of the year, but whether this was the result of seasonal fluctuations in fertility or sexual activity was unclear. To investigate, Laura Symul at Stanford University in California and her colleagues turned to data from the Clue women’s health app, which included anonymous sexual activity logs from more than 500,000 women in the UK, France, Brazil, and the US. “It’s self-reported, but it is still the largest dataset of real-time reports of women’s sexual activities,” Symul said.
