It’s funny how, over the course of a long-term relationship, kissing and long makeout sessions go from being the main event to … rare, if not nonexistent. Even if you have an active married sex life, somehow, many couples find the appeal of locking lips fades over time. What’s up with that?!
Well, if you needed more reason to make out with your honey, research reveals a bevy of benefits of smooching more! Here, 10 science-proven facts about one of humankind’s most intimate pastimes.
1. There’s a “right” way to kiss. Even though everyone may have their own personal style and preference, people are more likely to tilt their heads to the right when kissing instead of left, according to a report in the journal Nature. Researchers at Ruhr University in Germany took a microscope to 124 couples and found 65 percent of ’em went right.
Don’t try this at home or work… or even see it..
2. Kissing makes for happier, healthier hormones. Endorphins are those joy-making hormones we get from working out, and oxytocin is the bonding hormone triggered by snuggling or breastfeeding your baby. But both are also released by smooching — and add up to making you feel far less stressed and way more blissful! Kissing also boosts levels of dopamine, which regulates sexual desire and serotonin, which elevates mood, and lowers stores of cortisol, the stress hormone, in turn reducing anxiety and blood pressure.
3. Your lips have more nerve endings than your clitoris. The spot on a woman’s body most frequently associated with pleasure has 8,000 nerve endings. Your lips? Approximately 10,000!
4. Humans aren’t the only ones who kiss. Animals of all kinds show affection in similar ways: Chimpanzees kiss, foxes and dogs lick each other?s faces, some birds tap their bills together, and elephants put their trunks in each other?s mouths.
5. Kissing can keep you feeling well. Though it has a reputation for actually spreading illness (cuz, you know, all that saliva-swapping), a study published in the journal Medical Hypotheses found kissing may actually increase a woman’s immunity from Cytomegalovirus, which is contracted through mouth to mouth contact, can cause infant blindness and other birth defects if the mother is a carrier during pregnancy.