The average Internet user's desire for porn may wax and wane according to various life events and other hidden patterns, but it turns out there are a few predictable days where more people than usual tend to abstain from the more salacious side of the Web.
The data comes from Pornhub.com, which as you may guess (or know), is a major porn-aggregation site. It tracks views carefully, for normal website monitoring purposes and, of course, for things like recommendations.
In the past year, the days Pornhub.com saw the least traffic correspond closely with U.S. holidays — when people are most likely to be away from their computers, with their families, or both. Christmas Day claimed the top (or rather, bottom) spot, followed closely by Thanksgiving. Christmas Eve, Easter Sunday and, surprisingly, Independence Day round out the top five.
Only one day doesn't really make sense: Oct. 20, the day with the 7th-lowest traffic on Pornhub, doesn't seem to be important nationwide for any particular reason. At that time, Hurricane Sandy was approaching, but it wouldn't touch down on the East Coast until later that week.
The full list, accompanied by some droll commentary, can be found at 11 Points, a list site that cajoled Pornhub into sharing its data.
Also published was a list of the days on which the most porn was watched. Understandably, several of them are the days after days on which the least porn was watched. We can control our appetites, apparently, but not for long.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBCNews Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.