Why is Sex Better than Retirement?

So it turns out people are happiest when they are having sex and least happy when they are at work or commuting to work.  Yes, it took a scientific study to figure this out, but no, it’s not for the reasons you might expect.

Harvard University’s happiness gurus, Daniel Gilbert and Matthew Killingsworth conducted a study recently, which John Tierney detailed in the New York Times.  The shocking finding that sex makes you happier than work has nothing to do with which activity is more pleasurable though.  It has to do with how often your mind wanders.  

No matter what activity an individual was involved in, they reported being happier if their mind did not wander away from the activity at hand.  “In fact, whether and where their minds wandered was a better predictor of happiness than what they were doing.”  Which means that people are happier even when their minds are focused on an unpleasant task, than they are when their mind wanders during a pleasant task.  Sex, it seems is an activity where the mind doesn’t tend to wander, and apparently work is an activity rife with mind-wandering opportunities.

Which makes me think that this is what people are really worried about when they worry about being bored in retirement.  While retirement offers the time to engage in whatever activity you want whenever you want, the gift of time also provides more time for your mind to wander.  And since a wandering mind apparently makes you less happy, even when engaged in pleasurable activities, the risk of unhappiness may be greater when you’re not forced to focus on a particular activity like work.

For those that are worried about boredom in retirement, it should come as some comfort then, that work doesn’t really seem to protect against that wandering mind and the resulting unhappiness.   It definitely pays to figure out what other activities will keep you engaged during retirement, because there’s only so much time you can devote to the one that is proven to keep your mind engaged.

Related Posts:

            The Truth About Retirement:  Part II

            Is Being Content Preventing You From Being Happy in Retirement?

            Living in the Moment in Retirement

 

This is a post from Retirement:  A Full-Time Job

 

Comments

[Bob]

A post with sex in the headlines....that always grabs 'em (Marketing 101).

I saw the same study and am not surprised at the finding. It just makes sense that a wandering mind indicates someone isn't fully engaged in what he is doing and may be less than happy.

Is it possible the study had the premise backwards? You mind wanders when you are doing something that doesn't fully satisfy you, even if supposedly pleasurable, rather than you are less happy when your mind wanders. It seems the wandering mind is the effect, not the cause of the unhappiness.

Or, did my mind wander while trying to figure this out?

[guinness416]

Sex, it seems is an activity where the mind doesn’t tend to wander

Depends who you're having sex with I expect!

I've certainly frittered away days off work getting up late, fooling around online and pottering around the house. Look up and suddenly it's 7pm! So I can see that a lot of that would make your retirement pretty miserable.

[Mother of three]

Perhaps the fact that my mind occasionally wandered during sex is part of the reason my marriage only lasted 25 years.

[UHNW]

I thought the NYT times article was really interesting.