We’ve all heard about the benefits of a healthy sex life: It boosts your immune system, lowers your blood pressure and gets your heart rate up.

But during this time of uncertainty, we’re finding out that sex has yet another benefit—it helps you beat the blues!

Let’s face it, we’ve all felt a little lonely at times these last few months as we adjust to staying at home more, being away from friends and family and not having the social interaction of a concert or a night on the town. In fact, a new survey by the Indiana University School of Public Health and commissioned by Pure Romance shows that a third of adults surveyed during the first month of stay at home orders reported depression during the lockdown and increased feelings of loneliness. Most affected, the survey shows, were women ages 20-29.

But here’s the good news: Most adults were able to fight off those feelings of depression and loneliness during our home quarantines by maintaining their social and, especially, their sexual connections. “Those who maintained frequent in-person…social and sexual connections had better mental health outcomes,” the study reported.

Those surveyed who had children under the age of five at home reported they were three times more likely to show signs of intimacy, such as hugging, cuddling or holding hands, during quarantine, while those with elementary aged children often reported decreased intimacy.

“These findings,” the report says, “are largely consistent with differences in how ‘stay at home’ orders may have asked parents to balance working from home and childcare in an absence of school, day care, or other forms of childcare outside the home.”

We’re all adjusting to our new lives as we ease back into safe social interactions. While our routines may have changed, one thing has not—the importance of relationships to our own mental health. Finding a way to rekindle our bond with our partners gives a boost to our immune system as well as to our personal connections. So have more sex—and beat the quarantine blues!

*Findings from the 2020 National Survey of Sexual and Reproductive Health During COVID-19 by the Indiana University School of Public Health, conducted April 10-20 in an online survey of 1,010 Americans ages 18 and over.