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Time for sex: nycthemeral distribution of human sexual behavior

BACKGROUND: Nycthemeral (daily) oscillation has been documented in a variety of physiological and behavioral processes. The present study was carried out to evaluate the existence of a nycthemeral rhythm of human sexual behavior and to identify environmental factors responsible for the rhythmic patt...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Refinetti, Roberto
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2005
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079926/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15790406
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1740-3391-3-4
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author Refinetti, Roberto
author_facet Refinetti, Roberto
author_sort Refinetti, Roberto
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Nycthemeral (daily) oscillation has been documented in a variety of physiological and behavioral processes. The present study was carried out to evaluate the existence of a nycthemeral rhythm of human sexual behavior and to identify environmental factors responsible for the rhythmic pattern. METHODS: Non-traditional university students (ages 18 to 51 years) recorded the times of day when they went to sleep, when they woke up, and when they had sex for 3 consecutive weeks. They also answered a questionnaire designed to identify the causes of their selection of time for sex. RESULTS: The majority of sexual encounters took place at bedtime (11 pm to 1 am). The most common explanations for this temporal pattern were the rigidity of the professional work schedule and family obligations and the availability of the partner, which reduced the opportunity for sexual encounters at other times of the day. CONCLUSION: Most sexual encounters take place around bedtime. Although the presence of an endogenous component responsible for this temporal pattern cannot be excluded, the evidence indicates strong environmental forcing, particularly from the work/family schedule of the individuals and from partner availability.
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spelling pubmed-10799262005-04-15 Time for sex: nycthemeral distribution of human sexual behavior Refinetti, Roberto J Circadian Rhythms Short Paper BACKGROUND: Nycthemeral (daily) oscillation has been documented in a variety of physiological and behavioral processes. The present study was carried out to evaluate the existence of a nycthemeral rhythm of human sexual behavior and to identify environmental factors responsible for the rhythmic pattern. METHODS: Non-traditional university students (ages 18 to 51 years) recorded the times of day when they went to sleep, when they woke up, and when they had sex for 3 consecutive weeks. They also answered a questionnaire designed to identify the causes of their selection of time for sex. RESULTS: The majority of sexual encounters took place at bedtime (11 pm to 1 am). The most common explanations for this temporal pattern were the rigidity of the professional work schedule and family obligations and the availability of the partner, which reduced the opportunity for sexual encounters at other times of the day. CONCLUSION: Most sexual encounters take place around bedtime. Although the presence of an endogenous component responsible for this temporal pattern cannot be excluded, the evidence indicates strong environmental forcing, particularly from the work/family schedule of the individuals and from partner availability. BioMed Central 2005-03-24 /pmc/articles/PMC1079926/ /pubmed/15790406 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1740-3391-3-4 Text en Copyright © 2005 Refinetti; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Short Paper
Refinetti, Roberto
Time for sex: nycthemeral distribution of human sexual behavior
title Time for sex: nycthemeral distribution of human sexual behavior
title_full Time for sex: nycthemeral distribution of human sexual behavior
title_fullStr Time for sex: nycthemeral distribution of human sexual behavior
title_full_unstemmed Time for sex: nycthemeral distribution of human sexual behavior
title_short Time for sex: nycthemeral distribution of human sexual behavior
title_sort time for sex: nycthemeral distribution of human sexual behavior
topic Short Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079926/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15790406
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1740-3391-3-4
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