If you are faced with a choice of having sex or getting some rest after a crazy exhausting day, and you are leaning toward getting a good night sleep you should know that you might be missing out on a chance to lose weight, improve your immune system, get younger, increase your IQ, improve your mood and prolong your life. And this is far from being a complete list of benefits of having a sexual intercourse. The following are the 20 reasons why you should have sex more often.

1. If you have sex at least twice a week you will look at least 5 years younger. This has been discovered by English researchers who compared couples who have sex regularly and couples of the same age who prefer sexual abstinence. Couples having regular sex looked much younger than their actual age, while those who opposed sex looked their age at best. There is just one disclaimer though, in order for the body and soul to be young you should have sex with a regular sex partner who you care about rather than sleeping around.

2. Exercising in bed is a pleasant alternative to exhausting exercising in the gym. There has been a study done by Italian professor Bruno Fabbri proving that 26 minutes of having sex with climaxing at the end burns all the calories you consume by eating an entire pizza! He devoted a whole separate study to chips and hamburgers proving that the calories contained in these fast foods can be neutralized by a 53 minutes French kiss. Even the efforts the man applies to unhook the bra burn 18 kilocalories. We recommend unhooking it with your teeth since this simple jaw exercise burns 86 kilocalories right away.

3. Hormones serotonin and oxytocin produced during orgasm help get rid of insomnia. Both of these hormones have a relaxation effect and serve as a great sleeping pill. This explains why the moans of ecstasy and bliss are quickly replaced with the steady breathing of sleep.

4. Unfortunately, with age, men hesitate to have sex, which is too bad since regular sex life actually helps men to maintain potency, stay in good shape and have a good mood.

5. Bad mood is also a reason to have sex. During sexual intercourse endorphin is produced, which is the hormone that stimulates good mood and optimistic perception of the surrounding world. That is the reason why sex relieves stress and improves your mood. Endorphin’s effects are multiplied by hormones serotin, cortisol and dopamine, which actively fight depression and cause the after-sex euphoria.

6. The skin of sexually active women is smooth and silky. Regular sex life increases the production of collagen protein, which is the element that improves the skin metabolism, moisturizes the skin, and makes its surface smooth and velvety. You are unlikely to see a face of a sexually active woman covered in pimples, most likely they have been disposed of by hormone progesterone, the level of which is directly correlated with how sexually active you are.

7. It turns out that women that enjoy giving oral sex have easier and more enjoyable pregnancies than those women who prefer traditional means of lovemaking. There has been an experiment performed by Australian scientists on a hundred women, the results of which were that regular intimate relationships before pregnancy and especially oral sex help a woman’s immune system get used to the partner’s sperm. After all, most inconveniences during the nine months of expecting are caused by the struggle of the mother’s immune system with the foreign body or fetus. However, if the husband and wife’s bodies "communicated" a lot on the sexual oral level, the woman’s body is more likely to accept the new "guest" without causing any issues.

8. Male hormones pheromones normalize the woman’s hormonal balance. A weekly portion of this substance eliminates any menstrual cycle abnormalities.

9. Out of all the known sedatives sex is the most pleasant and healthy. During the climax the tensed muscles contract intensively which leads to absolute relaxation. During this time the person not only completely relaxes physically but also mentally. This is exactly the reason why people who have satisfying sexual lives are more friendly and content than those who avoid the pleasures of sex.

10. Sex with the person you love is a great medicine against migraines. It definitely helps the American women according to a study conducted by Illinois scientists on 50 sexually active women suffering from migraines. Every fourth of them had a noticeable reduction of a headache after each sexual intercourse and every eighth woman had a headache go away completely.

11. Here is an original advice for students – during the exams times have sex more often, and if you are single at the time then at least masturbate! It has been discovered that the blood circulation in our body reaches its maximum speed at the peak of an orgasm. The oxygen enriched blood reaches all the body organs including the brain and hence each orgasm increases your IQ level. In addition sexual exercises stimulate the hypothalamus activity, which controls the functioning of the hormonal system along with memory and learning centers. Therefore even self-satisfying during the long nights of cramming for the exams increases your concentration level and improves memory.

12. Sex is the best prevention of prostate inflammation and cancer, both of which lead to a decline of male’s sexual abilities. Regular ejaculation for a man is not only the pleasurable moment of orgasm, but also the emptying of prostate gland, which is the required condition for its health.

13. A passionate and sensual woman who often enjoys the pleasures of sex is very likely to have an ideal flat stomach, which is no wonder since the movement of the penis inside the vagina and the muscle contractions at the moment of orgasm are a great exercise for your abdomen. Strong pelvic muscles not only maintain your abs in great shape, but also your back. Therefore "exercising" in bed replaces any diets.

14. Sex is a great stimulant of the immune system. Those who have sex once or twice a week have 30% more immune cells produced than those who are sexually passive, hence the conclusion that sex can protect against getting sick. Although there is one snag to it, having sex too often on the contrary decreases the number of immune cells.

15. If you suddenly came down with a toothache grab your partner and drag him to bed. Sex is an effective cure of toothache. The healing power is provided by hormones of happiness- endorphins, which are produced in large quantities during sex. Besides sexual pleasures strengthen the teeth enamel and gums since sex improves blood circulation and hence the blood flow to the mouth cavity.

16. During sex the level of hormone estrogen in the female body is increased twice. The benefit of its increased quantity is obvious. First of all, the chances of developing osteoporosis, excessively fragility of bones, decrease. Secondly, this hormone affects the cardio-vascular system and improves the skin condition. And thirdly, estrogen drastically reduces the cholesterol level in your blood.

17. According to cardiologists in the whole world, sex prevents heart diseases. A study in one of the hospitals in USA showed that 65% of patients delivered to the hospital with heart issues have either ignored sex completely or did not get any satisfaction from it. Similar results have been obtained in a study with men who underwent a heart attack. Almost half of them were experiencing problems in bed and a lot of them suffered from impotence. Regular sex is a good exercise for a heart muscle.

18. Sexually active people live much longer than sexually lazy ones. This is the conclusion drawn by British scientists who studied a group of people 45 to 49 years of age for over 10 years. It turned out that the risk of parting with their lives is twice lower for those people who have sex at least twice a week, while rare sexual intercourses unfortunately do not prolong life at all. There is another observation that they made – those who have a good sexual appetite and are married also live longer, and being married is a obligatory requirement for longevity of the same importance as sex.

19. Psychologists recommend sex as a means of communication. The body language satisfies the person’s psychological need to communicate, expressing a whole variety of sensations – keenness, affection, trust, security.

20. In addition, if you are having sex, you are not shooting at a war, not twiddling your thumbs, not spoiling your sight by sitting in front of the computer, not fighting with your significant other, not eating fast food, not cluttering your lungs with tobacco, and so on, the list could be endless.

So with all of this in mind, what are your plans for tonight?