If you’re in a long-term relationship, your sex life is probably slightly less exciting now than it was the start of your relationship .
But if your sex-life is more lukewarm than sizzling, you’ll be happy to hear that help is at hand, as scientists have revealed the key to having more sex with your partner.
Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have revealed that when it comes to sex in relationships, passion trumps love .
In the study, the team surveyed 92 couples in long-term relationships about their sex lives.
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Participants were asked a range of questions, including how happy they were in their relationship, how committed they felt to their partner, how intimate they were, how much they trusted each other and the love between them.
An analysis of the results suggests that passion is the key to sex in a long-term relationship.
Dr Trond Viggo Grøntvedt, first author of the study, said: "Passion in the relationship is of great importance for intercourse frequency.
"Passion is actually the only one of these factors that matters. We didn't find any association between any of the other aspects and how often people have sex in couple relationships.”
But while it’s all well and good suggesting that couples boost the passion in their relationship, this isn’t always as simple in practice.
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To help, Hayley Quinn, Match’s dating expert, has revealed several ways that couples can reignite the spark if they’ve found themselves in a sexless relationship.
Speaking to Mirror Online, she said: “People have different libidos, life takes over and as your responsibilities increase it is easy for your sexual relationship to decline. If you're in this situation whether it's been for a few weeks, months or even years it can have a negative impact on your self esteem and wellbeing.
“It is important to recognise this isn't a reflection of you, or your attractiveness. Sometimes couple's libidos are mismatched, other times stress and poor health can take its toll.
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“The first step to resolving this is to depressurise the situation and get out of any circular conversations about 'why it's been so long’.”
Rather than focusing on sex, Ms Quinn suggests that couples start by banning anything other than kissing.
She explained: “Often by focusing on smaller forms of flirtation it can help you to recapture that feeling of excitement around sex.”
Ms Quinn also suggests that spending quality time with your partner can help to reignite the spark.
She added: “Quality time together is another important ingredient to making this happen; as is spending enough time apart that you regain some of that spark, so don't be hesitant to schedule this in if it's not happening organically!”
