Benefits of cuddle

What happens to your body when you cuddle

You feel happier

Your immunity gets a boost

Your libido increases

Your anxiety lessens

Your blood pressure lowers

Your heart rate slows

Your pain is relieved

Hate it or love it, men should initiate the cuddle

No partner to cuddle? There (used to be) an app for that

What if you want all the benefits of cuddling but you're not currently in a relationship? Canoodling random strangers is not exactly socially acceptable. Wait, actually, it is. Well, sort of.

In 2014, an app called Cuddlr launched. Think: Tinder… but for cuddling — platonic cuddling. 

In an interview with Salon, founder Charlie Williams, explained, "We talked about it initially as a joke, the name being a play on the common '-r' trope for apps. But then we… decided that there's a real need for this, that we'd actually use that app if it existed."

Williams continued, "we don't get enough touch in our daily lives. And there's a lot of space between the portion of people it might be nice to have a casual, PG-rated cuddle with, and the smaller set you'd want to date or sleep with. I think as a culture we're ready to consider cuddling as more than just something that happens before or after sex, but as something worth pursuing in its own right."

While he's not exactly wrong, it was maybe a bit too new-age for many people to grasp.The Independent reported that Cuddle shut down in 2015. According to Williams, one of the biggest challenges was getting people to understand what "platonic intimacy" was all about. Cuddle ended up being sold and rebranded as Spooner, but even with a one-time following of 300,000 members, it, too came to an end.