scrapbook

Survey unveils what happens in bedroom

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Austrians love their bedrooms, but seldom make love in them. Malaysians often have sex in their bedrooms, but don't get much sleep there.

Those are two conclusions of Gallup International poll released Tuesday by Swedish furniture giant Ikea.

The company wanted to know how frequently people in Europe, Asia and North America use their bedrooms for different activities, including sleep, relaxation and "romance."

In Sweden and Iceland, 72 percent of respondents said they use their bedrooms for romantic endeavors, while in China the figure was 20 percent. All it said about North Americans was that a fifth - about 20 percent - like to have sex outside the bedroom, but it didn't say where.

Malaysians were the most sexually active - 43 percent said they have sex daily in their bedrooms. Malaysia was also the place were people sleep the least - six hours and 36 minutes per night, about half an hour less than the survey's average.

Austrians ranked low in sexual activity, but were the most satisfied with their bedrooms, ahead of Belgians and Swiss. Russians were the least satisfied.

The survey was conducted by Isopublic, the Swiss branch of the Gallup organization, in January and included 14,000 IKEA customers in 27 countries. The margin of error was 4.5 percentage points.

Spaniards and North Americans were most likely to keep their bedrooms private, while almost half of Chinese allowed their friends access.

Other facts in the survey: Three-quarters make their bed daily; people who frequently change their mattresses have more sex; and the most common fixture of a bedroom is the alarm clock.

Posted by thinkum at April 20, 2004 04:58 PM