Expert claims people are having less sex because they are spending too much time on their phones

An expert has claimed people are having less sex than they used to because of too much time spent on phones and iPads.

Over the years, many studies have revealed people are having less sex than ever, but experts have struggled to pinpoint the reasons why.

In the UK, the National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL) found that the amount of sexual activity people are having has gone down.

In 1991, the average amount of was five times per month. In 2001, that was lower still at four times a month. Most recently in 2012, it was on average three times per month.

Soazig Clifton, academic director for NATSAL at University College London, said this trend is something that we’re seeing around the world, not just in the UK.

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Clifton said: “If you look around the world, other comparable studies show a decrease as well. So, it seems to be a real international trend.”

But, when pinpointing why that is Clifton says observational studies don’t always give us that.

Clifton added: “It is certainly theoretically plausible that people are spending so much time on their iPads and phones, connecting with others virtually rather than having sex with the person next to them.”

However, she also suggests that as sex becomes less taboo, people may feel able to be more open and honest about the fact that they’re not engaging in sex.

It also comes as some who engaged in "No Nut November" said it gave them superpowers and a study revealed Brits would prefer to clean their house than have sex.

She said: “Maybe people are more able to tell us that they’re not having sex. There is some statistical work we’ve done that shows we have a bit less reporting bias in our data.

“These decreases in biases would go along with the increased, more nuanced public conversation about sex.”

But, there could be other explanations, such as business, that impact on our desire for sexual acitivty.

Clifton explained that for work done by NATSAL, “the researchers worked with middle-aged women and something that came up in that research was that women were too tired for sex.

“They had so much else going on in their life.”

For some countries, less sex does cause some concern for their birth rate, but studies on the topic also help to tell us about the modern society we currently live in.

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