The attitudes that people have towards sex are kind of similar to the ones we have towards alcohol: they change over time.
As children, we do our best to avoid it, and don't really understand enough about the topic to even begin discussing it; then, as teenagers, we become more interested, and might even dabble in it behind our parents' backs; finally, as adults, it becomes more of a routine thing, and we forget all about how taboo it used to be.
For that reason, some might assume that the best sex of your life would happen at the point where it's still new and exciting - perhaps during the first
serious relationship of your late teens or early twenties. However, new research has shown that this is not the case.
A huge amount of information collected and collated by Happify showed a breakdown of all sorts of aspects of people's sex lives, from how frequently they get down and dirty, to how often they achieved "the big O", to which nations around the world were happiest with their nocturnal habits.
Of all the data collected, perhaps one of the most surprising statistics was the age at which people considered themselves happiest with their sex lives. Results differed slightly between surveys, with one reporting that women felt happiest at the age of 26, while men were most satisfied when they were 32. However, when older couples were asked about their best bedroom escapades, they identified the peak as being later on in life.
People in their 50s and 60s said that they had the best sex when they were 46 years old - which is probably good news for the majority of people reading this right now. If you're already past that, though, don't panic, as nearly half the people surveyed for the study said that the best sex they ever had was with their
current partner, regardless of age.
A few other facts that stood out were that only 32 per cent of women around the world regularly orgasm during sex, whereas 64 per cent of men reach climax. Moreover, only one in four women can reach the big O through penetration alone (quick tip for the straight guys out there: there's more to the horizontal jog than just going at it missionary style), and one of the biggest factors that prevent orgasming is stress.
The quality of the sex you have will also be affected by how you feel about your partner, as a whopping 96 per cent of people agreed that intimate moments were more fulfilling when they were shared with people they had an emotional connection with.
Overall, it seems that whether we do or do not enjoy a
sexual experience at a certain age is pretty subjective, and everybody has a different opinion on what works for them and what doesn't. Either way, if you're happy with how you engage in the pants dance at the moment, just keep on doing what you're doing. And if not... well, you could always just wait for age 46 to roll around.
