Morning sex has always had its fans. The part that’s supposed to be the turnoff might be the very reason.

A recent episode of the podcast Subway Takes sparked the conversation after TikToker Jay Guapeo made his case for morning sex over nighttime sex. His reasoning has made people’s ears perk up. “It’s something about, like, the morning breath with the bonnet combo,” Jay said. “Like, it just never fails, and you don’t gotta do too much.” Host Kareem Rahma agreed, citing pure laziness as his motivation. Reddit piled on with its own testimonials, including one user who said: “The rough edges make up part of the heightened excitement.”

Turns out there’s actual psychology behind this. Susie Masterson, a BACP-registered psychotherapist and relationship coach, says our associations with smell, touch, and physical proximity all feed into arousal and emotional connection in ways most people underestimate. Morning breath doesn’t technically qualify as a pheromone, but Masterson notes that the chemical responses our bodies have to closeness are well documented, and the associations we build around a partner’s natural scent operate in a similar vein.

The real explanation, though, goes somewhere more interesting. “Common associations with morning breath are around safety and familiarity,” Masterson says. “Before we get up and make ourselves presentable to the outside world, we are in a vulnerable and more natural state. This signals that there is something special about being included in this. It says, ‘I trust you to experience me in this state.’”

Why Some People Think Morning Breath Makes Sex Better

So morning breath, reframed, is intimacy currency. Annabelle Knight, sex and relationship expert at Lovehoney, adds that people build a positive association with a partner’s natural morning scent over time, to the point where what might repel a stranger becomes something that pulls you closer. A Lovehoney study found men prefer morning sex between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., with energy levels and sheer convenience doing a lot of the convincing.

For the unconverted, Knight recommends mints or mouthwash on the nightstand and positions like spooning or reverse cowgirl that make face-to-face contact optional.

Being seen at your least presentable, by someone who still wants to get it on anyway, is the whole thing.