CORVALLIS, Ore. – Maintaining a healthy sex life at home boosts employees’ job satisfaction and engagement at the office, underscoring the value of a strong work-life balance, an Oregon State University researcher has found. 
 
 A study of the work and sex habits of married employees found that those who prioritized sex at home unknowingly gave themselves a next-day advantage at work, where they were more likely to immerse themselves in their tasks and enjoy their work lives, said Keith Leavitt, an associate professor in OSU’s College of Business. 
 
 “We make jokes about people having a ‘spring in their step,’ but it turns out this is actually a real thing and we should pay attention to it,” said Leavitt, an expert in organizational behavior and management. “Maintaining a healthy relationship that includes a healthy sex life will help employees stay happy and engaged in their work, which benefits the employees and the organizations they work for.” 
 
 The study also showed that bringing work-related stress home from the office negatively impinges on employees’ sex lives. In an era when smart phones are prevalent and after-hours responses to work emails are often expected, the findings highlight the importance of leaving work at the office, Leavitt said. When work carries so far into an employee’s personal life that they sacrifice things like sex, their engagement in work can decline. 
 
 The researchers’ findings were published this month in the Journal of Management. Co-authors are Christopher Barnes and Trevor Watkins of the University of Washington and David Wagner of the University of Oregon. 
 
 Sexual intercourse triggers the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with the reward centers in the brain, as well as oxytocin, a neuropeptide associated with social bonding and attachment. That makes sex a natural and relatively automatic mood elevator and the benefits extend well into the next day, Leavitt said. 
 
 To understand the impact of sex on work, the researchers followed 159 married employees over the course of two weeks, asking them to complete two brief surveys each day. They found that employees who engaged in sex reported more positive moods the next day, and the elevated mood levels in the morning led to more sustained work engagement and job satisfaction throughout the workday. 
 
 The effect, which appears to linger for at least 24 hours, was equally strong for both men and women and was present even after researchers took into account marital satisfaction and sleep quality, which are two common predictors of daily mood. 
 
 “This is a reminder that sex has social, emotional and physiological benefits, and it’s important to make it a priority,” Leavitt said. “Just make time for it.” 
 
 Twenty years ago, monitoring sleep or daily step counts or actively practicing mindful meditation might’ve seemed odd but now they are all things people practice as part of efforts to lead healthier, more productive lives. It may be time to rethink sex and its benefits as well, he said. 
 
 “Making a more intentional effort to maintain a healthy sex life should be considered an issue of human sustainability, and as a result, a potential career advantage,” he said. 
 
 U.S. employers probably won’t follow the lead of a town councilman in Sweden who recently proposed that local municipal employees be allowed to use an hour of their work week for sex. The councilman’s hope is to boost the town’s declining population as well as improve employee moods and productivity. 
 
 But employers here can steer their employee engagement efforts more broadly toward work-life balance policies that encourage workers to disconnect from the office, Leavitt said. The French recently enacted a law that bars after-hours email and gives employees a “right to disconnect.” 
 
 “Technology offers a temptation to stay plugged in, but it’s probably better to unplug if you can,” he said. “And employers should encourage their employees to completely disengage from work after hours.” ||||| Photo: NK SUTTLE/Getty Images 
 
 Ever find yourself sitting at your desk at work, unable to concentrate while daydreaming of somehow winning the lottery and moving to a tropical island to start anew? If so, you might just want to try to get laid more often, because a new study found that workers who have active, healthy sex lives tend to like their jobs more and be more productive at work. 
 
 Published in the Journal of Management, researchers from Oregon State University looked at the work and sex habits of married employees in a small study of 159 people over the course of two weeks. The researchers had each of the participants complete two brief surveys each day, and found that those who had more sex at home reported more positive moods the following day. On top of that, the elevated mood levels they reported in the mornings were linked to more engagement with their work and higher job satisfaction throughout the entire workday. 
 
 The positive effects of getting laid seemed to last for 24 hours — and the researchers noticed that the effects were “equally strong” for men and women. Furthermore, even after the researchers took into account the participants’ marital satisfaction and sleep quality (which are common predictors of a person’s daily mood), the benefits of banging were still present. The effect likely stems from the fact that sex triggers the release of dopamine and oxytocin, which makes it a “natural and relatively automatic” mood elevator, the study noted. 
 
 “This is a reminder that sex has social, emotional, and physiological benefits, and it’s important to make it a priority,” study co-author Keith Leavitt, an associate professor at OSU’s College of Business, said in a statement. “Just make time for it.” ||||| Ever wondered if having sex is a good thing, an act that could actually make you a more productive person and help you perform better at work? Wonder no more, dear reader. A new psychology study claims that fucking at home makes people do better at the office. 
 
 The entirely unsurprising results came after researchers surveyed 159 married couples twice a day for two weeks. A majority of study’s subjects reported a “morning positive effect” at work the next day after a night of banging. There was also a correlation between nightly sex and high job satisfaction, low stress levels, and marital satisfaction. This sex stuff sounds like it’s good for you! 
 
 “This is a reminder that sex has social, emotional and physiological benefits, and it’s important to make it a priority,” Keith Leavitt, an associate professor at Oregon State University and lead author of the study, said. “Just make time for it.” 
 
 Sage advice: make time for sex, make it a priority. Then again, we’ve known about the correlation between sex and happiness for decades. The first study that linked sex with lower levels of anxiety dates back to 1958, and countless studies since then have showed how sex raises levels of feel-good chemicals dopamine, oxytocin, and opioids in the brain. Large-scale studies have also found that sex leads to happier marriages and possibly even a longer life. 
 
 All that said, this new study linking an active sex life with better job performance is a classic situation of correlation-not-causation. You could easily assume that people who have more sex are already leading happier lives or, at the very least, enjoying a happier marriage. These social factors are undoubted related to job performance, so it’s hard to say definitively whether the study’s subjects did better at work because they had more sex or because they’re simply happier, more productive people for any number of reasons. 
 
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 Don’t overthink it, though. There’s a college professor in Oregon telling you to make time for sex and expect good things to happen as a result. This is good advice. 
 
 [Journal of Management]
– Sex is good for you. Scientists tell us so, and continue to find ways in which it can positively impact our lives. Now a researcher at Oregon State University is reporting that "making a more intentional effort" to have a healthy sex life is an actual "issue of human sustainability" and, as would of course follow, a "potential career advantage." Reporting in the Journal of Management, his team followed 159 married employees over a two-week period and looked at their sexual behaviors as well as mood, engagement at work, job satisfaction, and more. Sure enough, having sex reaps positive benefits for a solid 24 hours—and for men and women equally, they found—likely due to the release of dopamine and oxytocin, reports New York magazine. Keith Leavitt, a business professor at OSU, goes so far as to say that people should "just make time for it," and notes that it's actually "a real thing" when people have a "spring in their step." If this all seems rather obvious, it did to Gizmodo, which points to studies linking sex with mood benefits all the way back to 1958. But while the study shows correlation and not causation—hey, people who elect to have sex more might be happier already, and being happier in general could be behind that higher work satisfaction—Gizmodo urges people not to overthink it. "There's a college professor in Oregon telling you to make time for sex and expect good things to happen as a result. This is good advice." (One town in Sweden is considering paying workers to take a one-hour sex break.)