Say yes, yes, yes to noisy sex

Cara Delevingne says trying to keep quiet during orgasm makes you feel it more. “When you just try and not make, like, any noise, you feel it way more, and it’s like, Whoa!” The actress and supermodel has a point, says Gigi Engle in InsideHook, in the sense that most of us are conditioned to make performative noises during sex. “But… total silence?”

Sex sounds “enhance our sexual pleasure, both when we make them and when we hear them”, says sex therapist Dr Laurie Mintz, author of Becoming Cliterate. Great sex is about communication: knowing that we’re pleasing our partners, and vice versa, has a positive impact on our sexual confidence and overall pleasure.

There are also physiological reasons why sex sounds are a turn-on. When we moan, we hyperventilate, leading to the stimulation of the central nervous system, a key participant in sexual arousal. “Just think about your raised heart rate and shallow breathing when you’re DTF.” And what about more purposeful communication? Saying things like “Oh, yes!” “Right there!” “That feels amazing!” and “Don’t stop!” boosts pleasure – we’re literally telling our partner what works for us, so they do it more.