The Real Benefits of 'Friends with Benefits'

Casual sex might benefit your future relationships...
Casual sex might benefit your future relationships...

Remember when we revealed The Big Fat Myth About Friends With Benefits and how 74 percent of FWB relationships DON'T destroy the friendship? Well, looks like there's more positive news about relationships where casual sex is involved.

By Dara Adeeyo

A recent study done at the University of Ottawa and published in The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality revealed that friends with benefits, one-night stands, booty calls and casual sex relationships can ultimately help a person make better choices when they're ready to enter a long term relationship.

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F-buddies, booty calls, and one night stands can actually be beneficial to your future love life? Jocelyn Wentland, a PhD psychology student who helped perform the study, explained to National Post that the lapse between high school and marriage for many young people is more than 10 years. "It's a long time to be a free agent. These relationships offer an in-the-meantime kind of access to sex. That's not a bad thing," Wentland says.

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Researchers conducted several focus groups with a total of 23 undergraduates and sex educators, 19 of whom had been involved in a casual sex relationship. Granted, this is a small number of people so we aren't saying these results are truly definitive, but the interesting thing that researchers found was that, for the most part, respondents understood the nuances between the different casual sex "relationships." For example: A one-night stand is someone you barely know, who you sleep with only once. A booty call is the person you call (or, let's be real-text) late at night when you're feeling horny and want to hook up. An f-buddy is someone you have a frequent sexual relationship with-you're not really friends, but there's a possibility you'll become friends. A friend with benefits is someone you hang out with regularly and have sex with whenever you want. True, it's the slight shades of difference here that can cause problems-if one person thinks there's more to the "relationship" than the other, feelings can be hurt. But as long as you're both on the same page, casual sex like this (using protection of course, but we don't have to tell you that) can help you find out what you're into sexually. The better you know yourself and what you like, then when you're ready for an LTR, the more likely you'll be able to find the person who can satisfy you inside the bedroom-and out.

Have you ever had a casual sex relationship? Did it end in disaster or was it a good experience?


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