Marie Claire UK
  • Fashion Fashion
      • Fashion
        • View all Fashion
        • Fashion Trends
        • Shopping
        • Watches and Jewellery
        • Fashion News
  • Beauty Beauty
      • Beauty
        • View all Beauty
        • Fragrance
        • Hair
        • Make Up
        • Skincare
        • Nails
        • Marie Claire Beauty Awards
  • Health Health
      • Health
        • View all Health
        • Fitness
        • Nutrition
        • Female Health
        • Wellbeing
  • Life Life
      • Life
        • View all Life
        • Opinions
        • Travel
        • Sustainability
        • Weddings
        • Money & Work
        • Competitions
  • Culture Culture
      • Culture
        • View all Culture
        • TV and Film
        • Celebrity News
        • Books
        • Royal News
  • Vouchers Vouchers
      • Clothing
        • View all Vouchers
        • Mint Velvet
        • Karen Millen
        • H&M
        • nobody's child
        • ASOS
        • ARKET
        • MANGO
      • Designer Clothing
        • View all Vouchers
        • Reiss
        • THE OUTNET
        • SSENSE
        • Mytheresa
        • Liberty London
        • Selfridges
        • Farfetch
      • Accessories
        • View all Vouchers
        • AllSaints
        • Aspinal of London
        • Charles & Keith
        • River Island
        • FitFlop
        • Kate Spade
        • Vagabond
      • Jewellery
        • View all Vouchers
        • Pandora
        • Abbott Lyon
        • Goldsmiths
        • Beaverbrooks
        • Astrid & Miyu
        • Swarovski
        • Angara Jewellery
      • Beauty
        • View all Vouchers
        • Sephora
        • Cult Beauty
        • Space NK
        • Dyson
        • Clarins
        • Look Fantastic
        • Clinique
      • Activewear
        • View all Vouchers
        • Lululemon
        • Gymshark
        • Sweaty Betty
        • Nike
        • adidas
        • New Balance
        • Helly Hansen
  • NEWSLETTER Signup to our newsletter
  • logoCreated with Sketch.
    Marie Claire Newsletter

    Celebrity news, beauty, fashion advice, and fascinating features, delivered straight to your inbox!


    By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

    You are now subscribed

    Your newsletter sign-up was successful


    An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
    Trending
    • Latest Issue
    • Marie Claire Masters
    • Autumn Winter 2026
    • Nail Trends 2026
    • Best Investment Bags
    • Best Perfumes
    1. Life
    2. Relationships

    What The Colour Of Your Bedroom Says About Your Sex Life

    You might have to rethink that Elephant's Breath...

    Lucy Pavia's avatar
    By Lucy Pavia
    Published 22 March 2016 In News

    When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

    (Image credit: rex)
    • Facebook
    • X
    • Pinterest
    Share this article
    Join the conversation
    Follow us
    Add us as a preferred source on Google
    Subscribe to our newsletter

    You might have to rethink that Elephant's Breath...

    Next time you're debating whether to paint your bedroom in 'Cornforth White' or 'French Gray', you might want to take into account a study which suggests the shade of your boudoir has an impact on your sex life.

    A study conducted by Travelodge (who last time we checked seem to paint pretty much every one of their rooms 'All White') on over 2000 couples found that those with caramel-coloured walls got the most action, having sex around three times a week.

    Perhaps even more interestingly - given its kinky associations - couples with red walls got the least action.

    Apparently there's a specific reason why caramel-brown can make you get jiggy with it more often. The colour supposedly triggers the thought of chocolate in most of us, which serves as an aprhodisiac.

    You may like
    • A woman reading a book in bed; bedsheets and flowers Move Over, White Noise: New Research Says Pink Noise Can Clean Your Brain as You Sleep—Scientists Weigh In
    • A autumnal winter scene; a laptop with the time; a woman resting. The Clocks Go Back This Weekend—Here's What That Actually Does to Your Mental Health
    • Fragrance Archetypes: What's your perfume personality? Forget Your Signature Scent—Your Perfume Personality Is Far More Interesting

    The study also found that people with blue bedrooms get the most sleep, getting an average of seven hours and 52 minutes of shut-eye a night. Perhaps a little randomly, blue was the bedroom colour of choice for builders, teachers and civil servants.

    7 Tips For A Better Night's Sleep

    Marie Claire Newsletter

    Celebrity news, beauty, fashion advice, and fascinating features, delivered straight to your inbox!

    By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

    Chris Idzikowski, a sleep expert at the Edinburgh Sleep Centre backed up the study with an explanation on why blue can help you sleep better. 'There are specialized receptors called ganglion cells in the retina part of our eyes, which are most sensitive to the color blue. These receptors feed information into an area deep in our brain that controls 24-hour rhythms, and affects how we perform and feel during the day. That interaction between light, sleep and wakefulness is supremely important.'

    Close behind blue in helping you rest properly are (unsurprisingly) calming yellow and (surprisingly) orange. According to the study, orange walls can also help stimulate your digestive system, which is handy if you like a big dinner.

    The study also showed that people with grey bedrooms are most likely to shop online in bed and have the worst amount of sleep - two discoveries which are clearly related to each other.

    Lucy Pavia
    Lucy Pavia
    Social Links Navigation
    Read more
    A woman reading a book in bed; bedsheets and flowers
    Wellbeing Move Over, White Noise: New Research Says Pink Noise Can Clean Your Brain as You Sleep—Scientists Weigh In
    A autumnal winter scene; a laptop with the time; a woman resting.
    Wellbeing The Clocks Go Back This Weekend—Here's What That Actually Does to Your Mental Health
     
     
    Fragrance Archetypes: What's your perfume personality?
    Fragrance Forget Your Signature Scent—Your Perfume Personality Is Far More Interesting
    Health freelance writer Katie Sims trying a 20-minute wind down bedtime ritual
    Wellbeing I Swapped My Evening Scroll for a 20-Minute Wind-Down Ritual—Two Weeks Later, I Sleep Completely Differently
     
     
    Latest in Relationships
    AI relationships: Woman lying in bed at night, looking at her smartphone while seeking relationship advice from a chatbot.
    Relationships AI Knows All Our Relationship Problems. Is That an Issue?
    Carrie Bradshaw and Mr Big standing outdoors in Sex and the City, a show that influenced what women expect from men in romantic relationships.
    Relationships “I Expected Men to Be Financial Providers, But Not Emotionally Safe”—What We Ask From Male Partners Has Changed, But Is It For Better or Worse?
     
     
    Abstract woman portrait in glitch style - stock photo
    Relationships His Girlfriend Died. Eight Years Later, An AI Version Of Her Replied
    Why We Hold Onto Things From Our Past: A Collection of Sentimental Keepsakes, Old Photographs and Letters
    Relationships Why Is It So Hard to Throw Away Things From Our Past?
     
     
    Latest in News
    New Beauty Launches: Burberry Beauty / Mes Beauty / rhute / Jo Loves / Ziip Beauty
    Beauty The Beauty Digest: Jennifer Lawrence’s Unexpected Haircare Launch, Burberry’s Exquisite New Perfumes and Jo Loves Sparks Festive Joy
    New Beauty Launches: Amouage, Haus Labs, XERF
    Beauty The Beauty Digest: Is XERF Worth the Hype? Plus, Amouage’s New Body Collection & The Beauty Beat Returns
     
     
    Jeans And Jackets
    Shopping Celine Dion, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sarah Pidgeon Swear by This Trophy Jacket-and-Jeans Formula for Instant Fashion Confidence
    Vogue World Robots
    Fashion AI Is Shaping the Future of Fashion—Can Creative Thought Survive?
     
     
    logoCreated with Sketch.
    • Site Archive
    • Contact Future's experts
    • Contact us
    • Terms and conditions
    • Advertise with us
    • Privacy policy
    • Cookies policy
    • About us
    Add as a preferred source on Google Add as a preferred source on Google

    Marie Claire UK is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

    © Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.