Can a Relationship Give You as Strong a Jolt as Caffeine?

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Anyone who has ever been in a romantic relationship knows that it can be a source of euphoria and delight. But have you ever considered whether a romantic relationship could physically energize you?

Research published in 2014 by Sarah Stanton, Lorne Campbell, and Timothy Loving suggests that it can.

We know that thinking about someone you love is associated with elevated stress responses, including the release of hormones such as cortisol, within the body (Loving, Heffner, & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2006). One fascinating thing that happens to us when we experience a stress response and our bodies release cortisol is that we experience an increase in blood glucose (blood sugar) that gives us extra energy. When we think about stress, and the related changes that occur within our bodies, we often think that this is a bad thing; however, researchers have argued that these stress responses impact us differently depending on whether they are occurring in response to positive or negative situations.

Researchers distinguish between stress related to negative events (distress) and stress related to positive events (eustress). Recent work has shown that eustress responses are likely to be generated by positive experiences and marked by positive emotional reactions (Loving & Wright, 2012). When we think about the objects of our desire and love, we typically experience exactly the positive feelings associated with eustress, meaning that the physical stress response we experience should fall into the category of “good stress” (assuming that you’re not thinking about how irritated you are with your partner for forgetting to pick up milk on the way home from work...).

Recent work by Stanton and colleagues (2014) takes things a step further. They argue that, since people experience cortisol release when thinking about their partner, they should also experience an increase in blood sugar. This would mean that thinking about our romantic partners is associated with boosts in actual physical energy.

To test this idea, they asked 183 participants to think about either their romantic partner; an opposite-sex friend; or their daily routine, as part of a detailed guided imagery task. They then assessed the amount of positive affect, or emotions participants experienced. Finally, they assessed participants’ blood glucose levels, 10 and 25 minutes after the imagery task.

They found that participants who thought about their partners experienced more positive affect after the task that participants in the other groups and had higher levels of blood glucose at both assessment points than participants in the other groups.

The authors argue that, since thinking about their partners produced positive and not negative feelings, this is an example of a eustress response, not a distress response. Further, they argue that their findings demonstrate that thinking about our romantic partners can actually give us an energy boost. So next time you feel like you need a cup of coffee or mid-afternoon chocolate to give you a boost, maybe think about the person you love instead.

Loving, T. J., Heffner, K. L., & Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (2006). Physiology and interpersonal relationships. The Cambridge handbook of personal relationships, 385-405.

Loving, T. J., & Wright, B. L. (2012). Eustress in romantic relationships. In The science of the couple: The Ontario Symposium (Vol. 12, pp. 169-184).

Stanton, S. C., Campbell, L., & Loving, T. J. (2014). Energized by love: Thinking about romantic relationships increases positive affect and blood glucose levels. Psychophysiology, 51(10), 990-995.