Want a happy marriage? Save sex for honeymoon

LONDON - Staying away from sex until after the wedding leads to happier marriages, said a study that was reported here.

Postponing the joy of the wedding night results in better relationships and also improves sex itself, researchers in the US found in the study for which 2,035 married couples were asked how soon they had sex after they first met.

The Daily Express Friday reported that those who waited until the honeymoon were 22 percent more likely to say their relationship was stable, and 20 percent more likely to say it was satisfying.

Interestingly, the couples who had sex after their wedding rated the quality of their sex lives 15 percent above those who had sex before marriage, and were 12 percent more likely to say they communicated well with their partner.

The researchers noted that those who had sex before marriage reported around half as much of the benefits, the media report said.

Study leader Dean Busby of the Brigham Young University in Utah said: “Most research on the topic is focused on individuals’ experiences of sex and not the timing within a relationship.”

“There’s more to a relationship than sex, but we did find that those who waited longer were happier with the sexual aspect of their relationship. I think it’s because they’ve learned to talk and have the skills to work with issues that come up.”

Busby said that couples who were not religious also reported having better relationships if they waited till their marriage before having sex.

“Regardless of how religious a couple are, waiting helps the relationship form better a communication process and this improves long-term stability and relationship satisfaction,” he was quoted as saying.