Could A Nightly Make-Out Session Improve Your Marriage?

When two people are married, they build a strong emotional bond with their partners and usually grow to become each other's best friends. In fact, a 2019 study via the Journal of Happiness Studies found that those who reported being best friends with their spouse experienced a higher level of well-being within their marriage. After all, your marriage affects all aspects of your life, including your friendships, mental health, and well-being, which is why it's so important to keep your marriage healthy.

On the other hand, sometimes when people grow close with their partners after years of being together, they also fall into a predictable routine that makes their relationship feel stale. In the beginning stages of a relationship, kissing someone new is one of the most exciting parts, but as you grow closer to your partner, it becomes less of a priority. However, kissing your partner is just as important in marriage as it is at the beginning of the relationship. If you're wondering how to keep the spark alive in your marriage, a nightly make-out session could be the answer.

"Kissing influences neurotransmitters and hormones like oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin, which also play a significant role in our relationships," Sheril Kirshenbaum, an academic specialist at Michigan State University tells WebMD. It's what helps you bond as a couple and could keep the spark alive in your relationship. "Kissing brings two people together like no other behavior," explains Kirshenbaum. "Each partner actively engages all of their senses to learn about the other."

If you're looking to get closer to your partner, kissing more often could be just what your marriage needs, according to Psychology Today. Kissing creates not only physical intimacy but it encourages emotional intimacy as well. In fact, the quality of a relationship was linked to how often the couple kissed, as per the University of Oxford. Plus, TikTok user and licensed psychotherapist specializing in sex, Vanessa Marin, shares how making out every night before bed keeps their marriage happy, healthy, and strong.

"The pattern for most people is that once they get into a long-term relationship, they really stop touching and kissing so much," Vanessa explains via TikTok. In fact, according to her, couples can become avoidant of any kind of touch or kissing when they're not in the mood to go any further, which can diminish the affectionate act of kissing, and end up putting your relationship in a funk. In order to break the connection between kissing and sex, Vanessa and her husband, Xander, learned that kissing doesn't always have to lead to sex. By creating a nightly routine of making out before bed, they enjoy making out just for the sake of it and don't feel pressure to have sex when they start making out. 

Therefore, when it comes to maintaining a lifelong relationship, it's important to continue putting in the work to keep the romance alive and remind your partner that they're special and valued. If the romance is dwindling in your relationship, you could benefit from a routine nightly make-out session with your partner.