If time were no object, 44 per cent of American and British men would like to have more passionate sex.

Bad news, lads: It turns out that there's one thing that would make women's hearts go pitter-patter. Alas it's not spending more time in the bedroom with you. American and British women agreed (45 per cent and 47 per cent, respectively) that the one thing they would like most to do more, if they only had the time is ... read.

However, there is a glimmer of hope for sexually frustrated men. A sizeable minority of women in both countries (30 per cent Americans and 37 per cent Britons) would like to engage in passionate sex more often. Moreover, when combining the scores of men and women, the British put spending a day or weekend in the country at the top of their want-to-do list, while the Americans put it second.

The study surveyed a random and representative sample of 1,003 Americans and 1,005 Britons to get their perspective on time. Conducted online by Market Probe International during the second week of January, the research has a margin of error of less than 3.2 per cent.

The Intimates: The survey also found that people who are most interested in having passionate sex and cuddling with loved ones more routinely -- what JWT calls the "Intimates" -- are the very same ones who are already most engaged in those activities. These people are also more likely than others to term themselves 'Time Poor' and also 'Cash Poor.'

Jeffrey says, "The Intimates are of real interest to us as marketers because these are the men and women who have a real appetite for physical and emotional interaction and who have the greatest sense of being short-changed. This represents a real opportunity for companies able to relieve their frustrations and make these consumers feel they're getting more for their time and money."

Time Wallet: To find out how people would allocate extra time if it became available, JWT provided an imaginary Time Wallet containing $1,000 or 1000 pounds with each dollar or pound being equal to one minute's time. Once again, the Intimates stood apart from the rest of their national samples. In the US, the Intimates would devote $139 (i.e., 139 minutes) to having passionate sex the following week, significantly higher than the $83 the overall U.S. sample would spend on that activity.

The situation was similar in the UK, with Intimates earmarking a total of pounds 114 to the cause of passionate sex, compared with just pounds 70 allocated to that purpose, on average, by their national sample as a whole.