We Feel Hornier During The Festive Season, Says Science. Lust Is In The Air

We Feel Hornier During The Festive Season, Says Science. Lust Is In The Air

Last night I just started watching Dash & Lily, a new series on Netflix, and right in the first episode, our male protagonist is walking around on Christmas, quite unhappily. And when he sees couples all around, he thinks to himself that they are mistaking holiday spirit for love. I thought about it for two minutes, you know to figure why we feel so romantically around the holiday season. Turns out, the holiday spirit isn’t just making us feel romantic but horny too. Yes, we feel hornier during the festive season!

Tis the season to be merry and make merry, watching the fireworks in the sky, under the mistletoe, or simply in a bed, knowing that the world outside is nice and lit. It is also the season to bond with your bae a little more. It is also when most couples (who aren’t doing well) break up. But most importantly, this is when singles who refused to play the field all year long decide it’s time they lust it up with a local cutie.

I almost didn’t believe it – could be that my libido is ebbing due to the emotional unavailability of the man I desire. According to a study, human libido works in a pattern that makes it all high during the holiday season and as we approach December. “The biological hypothesis proposes that human reproductive cycles are an adaptation to the seasonal (hemisphere-dependent) cycles, while the cultural hypothesis proposes that conception dates vary mostly due to cultural factors, such as holidays,” the study reads.

“Here we show that interest in sex peaks sharply online during major cultural and religious celebrations, regardless of hemisphere location. This online interest, when shifted by nine months, corresponds to documented human births, even after adjusting for numerous factors such as language and amount of free time due to holidays,” the study points out towards why we hornier during the festive season.

“Both Northern and Southern countries show a prominent peak in sex-searches around Christmas and we observe no counter-phase pattern corresponding to the southern hemisphere winter solstice of June 21st,” the study discusses a rise in sexual Google searches around the festive season.

According to Jesse Kahn (LCSW, CST), director and sex therapist at the Gender & Sexuality Therapy Collective in New York City, told Broadly, “For those where sex is connected to family and reproduction, they may feel inspired to create or expand their families.” Kahn also said that it holidays “could result in feeling more bold and seeking sexual connectedness.”

However, even those who didn’t have any such pleasant nostalgia related to holidays can feel the need for comfort. “For those with difficult family experiences, sex with those they choose intimacy with can be a way to feel more connected or pleasure at a time of feeling disconnected or estranged from the rest of their families,” Kahn said.

Sex is comforting, it is warm and makes you feel like you belong, even if it’s just for a while. Couples use this time to come closer since love is literally in the air and they are feeling hornier during the festive season.

It’s difficult to see it but even our sex drive works in tandem with the general cultural mood of human society. “The observed peaks of interest in sex occur around family-oriented religious holidays, across different hemispheres and cultures, and the measured collective mood on these holidays correlates with interest in sex throughout the year, beyond these holidays. This correlation suggests that the cultural driver of reproductive cycles depends on the collective mood of human societies, though establishing such causality warrants further study,” the research says.

“It is also worth noticing that while other major holidays in each country lead to increased sex-search volume (e.g. Eid-al-Adha), not all holidays exhibit this effect (e.g. Easter and Thanksgiving), suggesting that certain holidays have unique eigenmoods which lead to increased interest in sex at the population level,” the study points out.

ALSO READ: Here’s Why Several Women Feel Horny Before Their Period. PS: You’re Not Alone

According to the research, the authors concluded that really specific moods induce horniness in people. And it all comes down to feeling happy and calm. “Thus, specific mood states−typically happier, calmer, and neither in-control nor controlled−are associated with interest in sex, and this collective emotion is universal and maximized during cultural celebrations,” the study notes. So only if you are in these moods, you will feel hornier during the festive season. Otherwise, it’s just the same old sex. This gives you more reason to be merry?

Well, it makes sense. If you’re coupled, fuck your worries away whiles singles like me will simply watch Dash & Lily to enjoy other people’s holiday love stories.

ALSO READ: 7 Zodiac Signs That Are Feeling The Horniest During This Pandemic

Akanksha Narang

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