The One Thing Scientists Proved (Actually) Increases Men's Sexual Performance

We’ve all seen the headlines and the junk mail, and it seems like everyone in the world is interested in your sex life. Millions of companies swear that they’ll get you harder, better, faster, stronger! 1 ancient Asian secret will take care of all of your sexual worries! Exiled Nigerian princes know all the secrets if you’ll just kick in a little cash of your own to start things off! A weird ingredient your grandma used will take your junk from zero to hero! Local Russian-Japanese teen-MILF women near you have solved all possible bedroom concerns with one simple trick that you never would’ve thought of!

Yeah, it’s that bad. So when scientists actually claim that they’ve discovered something that increases men’s sexual performance, readers can be forgiven for snorting and clicking their ‘x’ buttons. After all, the chances that they’re actually speaking the truth are vanishingly low. Still, brace yourselves, because I’m gonna say it ---- scientists have recently found something (one simple something, at that) that consistently seems to put a little more ‘action’ in the ‘satisfaction’ area of men’s sex lives. Ready? Cue the drum roll . . .

Prepare yourself for some SCIENCE.

It’s light. Yep, light, and not just doin’ it with the lights on. As sexual interest has been documented to vary with the seasons, a team of Italian researchers from the University of Siena decided to test their theory that it just might be significantly influenced by ambient light levels. To that end, they recruited 38 men with diagnosed low libidos and treated half of them with a box designed to emit sun-simulating bright white light. For two weeks early each morning, the treated men hung out for half an hour in a room with said light box, soaking up the rays. The control group, meanwhile, did the same ---- but their light boxes emitted only a low non-therapeutic level of light.

Diagnosed low libido? Time to make light of it.

Did it work? Did it ever. The men who sat with the bright light experienced big changes in both their sex lives and their testosterone levels, with the latter rising dramatically. Professor Andrea Fagiolini, the study’s lead researcher, commented, “We found fairly significant differences between those who received the active light treatment, and the controls. Before treatment, both groups averaged a sexual satisfaction score of around two out of 10, but after treatment the group exposed to the bright light was scoring sexual satisfaction scores of around 6.3 - a more than three-fold increase on the scale we used. In contrast, the control group only showed an average score of around 2.7 after treatment.”

“The increased levels of testosterone explain the greater reported sexual satisfaction,” Fagiolini continued. “In the northern hemisphere, the body's testosterone production naturally declines from November through April, and then rises steadily through the spring and summer with a peak in October. You see the effect of this in reproductive rates, with the month of June showing the highest rate of conception. The use of the light box really mimics what nature does.”

Replicating sunshine.

The treated men’s testosterone (among other things) definitely did rise, with their levels increasing from 2.1 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml) to 3.6 ng/ml. Meanwhile, the levels of the control group remained steady at around 2.3 ng/ml before and after the study. Why might this dramatic rise in testosterone have taken place? “We believe that there may be several explanations to explain the underlying mechanism,” Fagiolini explained. “For instance, light therapy inhibits the pineal gland in the centre of the brain and this may allow the production of more testosterone, and there are probably other hormonal effects.

“We're not yet at the stage where we can recommend this as a clinical treatment . . . however if this treatment can be shown to work in a larger study, then light therapy may offer a way forward. It's a small study, so for the moment we need to treat it with appropriate caution.”

Bathed in sunlight? These two DEFINITELY have a more active sex life than you.

So there you have it, one (sort of) simple thing that genuinely appears to sizeably increase men’s sexual performance and satisfaction. While it’s not quick and easy, it does look like it provides pretty dramatic results, and the chances that you’ll be hearing more about it as it’s further studied and the techniques are refined are extremely high. Until then, maybe it’s time to focus on getting a little more sun ---- or perhaps having your partner hold a searchlight while you’re carrying on with a little bump ‘n’ grind. Hey, no judgement. Just tell your lover that it’s a new Italian technique.

If you’re curious about further data, the team’s findings were presented at the annual meeting of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) in Vienna.