Dream On

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Can't stop fantasizing about you and Ryan Gosling on a deserted island? Where your mind wanders when you daydream may help you better pinpoint ovulation.

The Scoop

Women tend to fantasize more about sex during the most fertile days of their menstrual cycles compared to the rest of the month, according to a study from Canadian researchers. The study also revealed that women are likely to include men in their fantasies during peak-fertility days and feel more aroused by these fantasies. Could this where the phrase "fertile imagination" comes from?

For the study, researchers recruited 27 single heterosexual women to fill in a daily online diary about their sexual fantasies for one month, reports MSNBC. On average, women reported having 0.77 fantasies a day. However, during the three days around ovulation, the number of fantasies spiked to 1.3 per day and involved a higher proportion of men. Though a sizeable number of women routinely popped up in women's sexual fantasies, around ovulation, the number of men-only fantasies jumped by a full percentage points.

"Women prefer someone whom they are able to receive genes from—hence why the number of men in the fantasies increases at ovulation," says study author Samantha Dawson, a graduate researcher at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada (via MSNBC).

Your Fertility

As LiveScience points out, this latest bit of research is just one of many studies finding differences in women's sexual interests over the course of the menstrual cycle. For example, a 2007 study found that around ovulation, when pregnancy is possible, women say they prefer macho, masculine guys. A 2011 study even suggested that women who are in the most fertile phase of the month are more likely to view Georgia O'Keeffe's suggestive flower paintings as erotic rather than just … uh … flowers.

Does all this mean you should ditch conventional methods of predicting ovulation in favor of using fantasies to tell you when it's time to try for a baby? Probably not. But it could mean one thing about preparing for those important fertile days: dream on!