Before Angad found ethical porn, the immediate moment after he’d masturbated would be riddled with guilt, crushing self-doubt, and questions that had no easy answers. After he’d orgasm, the “post-nut clarity” would kick in. And it wasn’t the clarity he necessarily expected.
“This was during the time when I’d consume porn with an alarming frequency,” the 22-year-old journalist told VICE. “The usual stuff became too mundane to watch. So I amped things up a bit by going for videos of older women, or gangbanging ones.”
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The term “post-nut clarity” has often been credited to Alexandra Cooper and Sofia Franklyn, the hosts of a podcast called Call Her Daddy. But though urologist and urogynecologist Michael Ingber told Men’s Health there is “actual research on post-nut clarity,” there is no scientific way to define it. The term, however, refers to the “immediate clear mindedness or soberness an individual gains after orgasming (busting a nut),” according to the resource millennials turn to for contemporary definition: Urban Dictionary.
The entry further says that post-nut clarity can also be “achieved via pre-bating” (masturbating before a date/hookup to reduce sexual urges) and also refers to the “phenomenon when an individual loses interest in a person after they have sex with them.”
Women release the same endorphins and hormones during sex and orgasms, urologist Koushik Shaw told Cosmopolitan. But the sad part, she added, is that many women just aren’t climaxing often enough to regularly reap the benefits of post-nut clarity. So, basically, it’s the orgasm gap that’s to blame for women not regularly experiencing post-nut clarity. Wow, one of the many reasons to bridge it.
In Angad’s case, he believed that his post-nut clarity was largely related to the porn he was watching.
“My post-nut clarity was one of concern,” he said. “[Such videos] ended up demonising sex for me which then seemed too detached, mechanical and feral to be real. After the release, I’d genuinely ask myself: What am I doing here? And for how long can I waste my time like this?”
Though the very existence of post-nut clarity is not definitive, it’s been popping up in pop culture for some time now. Rapper UnoDeuce waxes eloquent about the many travails of this phenomenon, in the context of self-pleasure, in the song “Post Nut Clarity.”
While not exactly Pulitzer-prize material, he raps: What’s wrong with me/ I don’t deserve body autonomy/ Why’d I look up nude pictures of Condoleeza Rice/ History CTRL ALT Delete it/ This a quandary/ Please don’t stare at me/ I got post nut clarity.
Comedian Andrew Schulz, during an episode of the Joe Rogan podcast, likened post-nut clarity to “a werewolf… running around doing crazy shit, and then you wake up and you’re covered in blood.”
The Japanese have a word for it too – “KenjaTaimu” – which literally means “wisdom time.”
The Weeknd, in a rather philosophical tweet in 2013, said, “As soon as I cum, I come to my senses.” Lil Wayne later referenced this pearl of observation in the song “Love Me.”
The phenomenon is also believed to have led penis owners make crucial decisions about their life, relationships, career or the person they’re having sex with.
Martand, a 37-year-old HR executive, credited one such moment of post-nut clarity with helping them realise just how neck-deep they were in the toxic waters of a job that overworked and underpaid them, apart from the daily venomous darts from their passive-aggressive boss.
“Immediately after I came, I held my wife’s hand and stared at the ceiling for at least five minutes straight,” they told VICE. “Somehow, that calm after that particularly passionate sesh was all the clarity I needed to tell my boss to fuck off. I wrote my resignation letter right away, still in my boxers.”
Neuropsychologist Jasdeep Mago told VICE that while there is nothing definitive about this phenomenon in science texts, one could speculate the reasons for how post-nut clarity works based on other non-sexual experiences.
“It could be similar to adventure sports where there is a release of adrenaline and dopamine at a higher level than usual,” she said. “Immediately after an adventure sport is over, many people experience a euphoric feeling and thought. In some cases, it not only gives them a sense of peace but also clarity about life overall. The same kind of neurochemicals and transmitters might be at play after sex too.”
Intimacy coach Pallavi Barnwal said that a basic understanding of neuroscience can also explain post-nut clarity.
“Our human mind is usually in the pursuit of pleasure and satisfaction in many avenues of life,” she explained. “But immediately after sex, when the need for satisfaction is complete, we gain a newfound motivation to actually work, make decisions, and look at things more clearly.”
Neuroscientist and sex therapist Nan Wise explained a similar hypothesis in her book Why Good Sex Matters. She used the term “incentive salience” to explain how humans end up seeking pleasure that is rewards-based (an orgasm in this case), and how once the same is achieved, the fog lifts and things become clearer.
In the case of Hamid, a 28-year-old content manager for a digital media company, post-nut clarity revolved around gratitude. “After sex with my partner, I was so relieved that I was with a man with whom sex was not a mathematical equation to solve, with no boxes to tick. There was no need to put the best foot forward as opposed to when I was with my ex. To me, your true colours are revealed after sex, and they manifest in post-nut clarity.”
For Ziyan, a 25-year old engineer, post-nut clarity only clarified the limits of his desperation and underscored his immature approach to his regular hook-up.
“Whenever I’d get horny, I’d approach her,” he told VICE. “But immediately after sex, I’d want to go away, afraid that this might end up getting serious. I wouldn’t reply to her texts or answer her calls. And then I’d go back to her again when I was horny. The cycle continued.”
Ziyan’s admittedly flaky approach to hook-ups is perhaps the reason why some experts differ in acknowledging post-nut clarity as a real phenomenon. Clinical psychosexual and relationship psychotherapist Jordan Dixon told Tyla, “For me, this is a moral panic and perpetuates myths around men just wanting to fuck and run.”
In such cases, where the post-nut clarity after sex is one of deep regret, Barnwal suggested taking that moment to reflect and investigate, instead of impulsively reacting to things and running away.
“The person experiencing this feeling (of regret) must also own up and assert agency over their actions,” she said. “We can’t run away from confronting our emotions. If approached with patience and objectivity, post-nut clarity can end with revealing truths about your life that were otherwise clouded by a mindless pursuit of pleasure.”
Or as YouTube user Remington Hill commented on that Andrew Schulz video from the Joe Rogan podcast: “It is not post-nut syndrome, it’s post-nut clarity. It’s a gift from the gods to be used wisely.”
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