Casual sex is good for your body in more ways than one. Researchers asked a group of willing (duh) college students to document their sexual encounters for 12 weeks, and monitored their overall well-being. In the end, those open to “sociosexually unrestricted” relations—aka sex with someone they didn’t know well and weren’t emotionally attached to—reported a higher sense of well-being and less stress after sex than afterno sex at all, says the study’s Zhana Vrangalova, Ph.D.
As for frequency, she says, “it seems even one casual encounter a week is enough to reap the benefits.” (However, she adds, if you’re basically against one-night stands in general, there’s no health benefit to forcing it.) Got that? Sex once a week. Doctor’s orders.
