New research has found that a 20-second hug in the morning can reduce stress dramatically - but only for women.
The study tested romantic heterosexual couples aged between 19 to 32, but found that men didn't experience the same impact.
Karen Hand, School of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin, joined Sarah McInerney and Cormac Ó hEadhra on Drivetime on RTÉ Radio 1 to discuss the science behind this wholesome study. Listen back above.
Noting how limited the test pool was for this particular study, Hand insists that hugging has benefits for most people no matter their age, sexuality or gender:
"There is a lot of research that hugging is good for a much broader population. It's good for older people, younger people, romantic couples, same-sex, etc."
"This particular study is great, but there's great research that it really helps our parasympathetic system, and that is effectively... it does the same thing as meditation and slowing down and breathing. It takes us back into ourselves and is very good for our stress levels."
In order to gauge this stress level, researchers had couples keep one hand each in a bucket of ice water for three minutes while maintaining eye contact in silence.
As it turns out, the women who had experienced a 20-second hug before this strange ordeal had much lower stress levels compared to the unhugged.
According to Hand, previous (and somewhat less intense) studies have shown that men can feel the benefits of physical touch before a stressful event too.
One study showed that if men and women held hands for 10 minutes and then had a 20 second hug, both men and women had a lower stress response when going on to complete a task like public speaking.
One theory as to why the 20-second hug doesn't effect men and women equally is that women, in a general sense, can get higher levels of pleasure from "gentle touch".
To find out more about this adorable study, listen back to Drivetime above.
