Smartphone use may be to blame for a drop in the number of times couples are having sex each month , a leading expert has suggested . Research has revealed that the frequency with which Britons are having sex has been in decline since the emergence of the internet . It comes after Professor David Spiegelhalter , a statistician at Cambridge University , revealed in a new book how a typical heterosexual couple was now having sex three times a month . Research has revealed that the frequency with which Britons are having sex has been in decline since the emergence of the internet ( file picture ) This was compared to four times a month in 2000 and five times a month in 1990 , according to research published in Prof Spiegelhalter 's book Sex By Numbers . According to the Daily Telegraph he told BBC Radio 4 's Woman 's Hour programme : 'We used to have a very big separation between our public lives and our private lives - now they are so mixed up and integrated . 'People are checking their emails all the time , you do not have the same sort of quiet empty time that there used to be . ' In his book , Prof Spiegelhalter pointed to a number of possible factors for the decline in sexual activity with one possible explanation being that more people are living on their own . Passion killed : People are check their emails 'all the time ' , according to Professor David Spiegelhalter , a statistician at Cambridge University ( file picture ) But he added : ' A more realistic explanation is that as we ’ ve become better connected technologically , our lives have become busier with the boundaries eroded between home , work and the outside world . This has squeezed out time we would have spent with our other halves . The statistician quotes Catherine Mercer , a researcher on the British National Survey , as saying : ‘ With an increasing number of competing demands on our time , sex just falls down our list of priorities. ’ She adds that dealing with work emails late in the evening can mean that ‘ come bedtime , we ’ re just still too connected with everyone and everything out there to be able to focus just on our partner . ’
Typical heterosexual couples in Britain are having sex four times a month . The figure in 2000 was three times a month and five times a month in 1990 . Leading statistician says couples are checking their emails 'all the time '