It’s an universally known fact: whether as a way to end a one-night stand on a pleasant note or as a regular part of a long-term relationship, morning sex is categorically awesome. Sure, doing the deed at night is great and all, but falling into that routine can make one, in my opinion, feel like part of a middle-aged married couple—you take your clothes off, get in bed and bang it out before falling asleep. And yeah, getting off before bed will certainly help you sleep. But there’s a lot to be said of the benefits of morning sex, as well.
I’ve never exactly asked myself which timeframe is straight-up better to have sex in, but Slate‘s Christina Cauterucci makes the argument with gusto, backing her treatise up with some pop science.
Cauterucci posits:
We have sex at night and on weekends because we’re not at work. We have sex before bed because we’ve already taken off our street clothes, brushed our teeth, and gotten in a horizontal position. Instead of putting thought and effort into it, we default to sex at night because it’s convenient and a force of habit. If humans want to get the most out of their sexual encounters, we need to break free from the strictures of just-before-bed sex and embrace the promising potential of sex at a far better time of day: morning.
In the morning, the cover of drowsiness lends itself to lowered inhibitions, fades as heart rates rise, and is gone by the time both people have finished. Sex lowers stress levels, relaxing participants for the day ahead, and releases endorphins for a boost of invigorating energy. This means all the benefits of morning yoga and a morning run without leaving your comfy bed and the person who shares it.
There’s a veritable mountain of evidence, both scientific and critical, in Cauterucci’s article to support the idea of morning quickie being better than having it off at night, but basically, between your invariably low inhibitions on awaking and the endorphin-releasing, stress-relieving results of doing the deed, your mind and body are essentially both naturally primed for morning sex.
So hey, maybe think about this the next time you’re about to reach for that snooze button on a particularly stressful workday—you and your partner might be a couple minutes late to the office, but you’ll both be feeling pretty grand when you get there.