Health: Behind every satisfied career is good sex at home

Good sex

New York: Maintaining a healthy sex life at home can boost your job satisfaction and engagement at the office, says a study.

Sexual intercourse triggers the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with the reward centres in the brain, as well as oxytocin, a neuropeptide associated with social bonding and attachment.

That makes sex a natural and relatively automatic mood elevator and the benefits extend well into the next day, said one of the researchers Keith Leavitt, Associate Professor at Oregon State University in the US.

To understand the impact of sex on work, the researchers followed 159 married employees over the course of two weeks, asking them to complete two brief surveys each day.

They found that employees who engaged in sex reported more positive moods the next day, and the elevated mood levels in the morning led to more sustained work engagement and job satisfaction throughout the workday.

The effect, which appears to linger for at least 24 hours, was equally strong for both men and women, according to the study published in the Journal of Management.

"This is a reminder that sex has social, emotional and physiological benefits, and it's important to make it a priority," Leavitt said.

"Making a more intentional effort to maintain a healthy sex life should be considered an issue of human sustainability, and as a result, a potential career advantage," he said.

The study also showed that bringing work-related stress home from the office negatively impinges on employees' sex lives.

In an era when smart phones are prevalent and after-hours responses to work emails are often expected, the findings highlight the importance of leaving work at the office, Leavitt said.

The study comes only a few days after the news of a town councilman in Sweden recently proposing that local municipal employees be allowed to use an hour of their work week for sex took the world by surprise because of the novelty of the suggestion.