Science says: Wearing your partner's clothes reduces stress

How is it that your partner's clothes have such a high theft content? I also love wearing my boyfriend's sweaters and sleeping in his T-shirts. His clothes are super soft and they always fall nicely oversized because he is a lot taller than I am. No hassle with tight, uncomfortable clothing. It's even so bad that I recently held one of my boyfriend's sweaters hostage for a few months until he claimed it back. Still, I'm going to quickly pick out another sweater to appropriate; wearing your partner's clothes is actually really good for your mental health.

The University of British Columbia investigated this through a study involving 96 heterosexual couples. They asked the men to wear new T-shirts for 24 hours without using deodorant, eating certain foods, or doing anything else that could change their body odor. The shirts were then frozen to preserve the scents, and the women were given random shirts to smell, meaning they didn't always get their own partner's shirts under their noses.

The cortisol level (the stress hormone) of the women was monitored while they were smelling the shirts, and what turned out? When smelling their partner's shirts, the cortisol level in the women's brains decreased, giving them a calmer feeling. Conversely, women who smelled a stranger's shirt had a higher cortisol level, which caused significantly more stress.

Researcher Marlise Hofer says the following about it: ‘Many people wear their partner's shirt or sleep on the other side of the bed when their partner is away, but may not realize why they exhibit this behavior. Our findings suggest that just the scent of a partner, even without their physical presence, can be a powerful tool to reduce stress.’

The next time your partner is difficult about lending a piece of clothing, just slide this article under their nose. Your partner doesn't want to be responsible for causing more stress in your life, right? Exactly, return that sweater!

Source: Bold