Common Bathroom Behaviour Revealed

Common Bathroom Behaviour Revealed

So you thought your bathroom was simply for getting clean, using the toilet, brushing your teeth and putting on makeup? Didn’t you? But you could actually be the only one to do so! It turns out that not only do individuals utilise bathrooms in a variety of ways, but they also use them for purposes other than just getting ready for the day, getting ready for bed and doing their business in the bathroom. We examined bathroom behaviours in greater depth.

What Do we do in our Bathroom?

Do women take longer than men to get ready in the bathroom?

So let’s start with the basics, specifically a concept that women take forever to get ready and always take over the bathroom. According to some research, women spend an average of 1 year, 7 months, and 15 days longer in the bathroom than men, but men spend more time grooming and – apparently – spend more money – a whole pound a week more – on grooming products like moisturisers. So, what were we doing in there all that time? There are, of course, obvious bathroom activities. Women appear to spend more time in the shower than men, but only by a couple of minutes: 14 against 12 for men.

Men do spend more time on the bathroom than women, but what do they do in there? It turns out that majority of us, both men and women, are on the phone or using a tablet to pass the time in the bathroom. Whether we’re worried about getting behind on work-related emails or impatient to finish the next level of the current game, it turns out that 75% of us use our smartphones in the bathroom. Many of us text, and many people admit to accepting phone calls while in the bathroom – 25% of men admit to holding conference calls when nature calls.

Are our phones the essential bathroom accessory?

We’re so attached to our phones that many males admit to sitting down rather than using a urinal in order to continue using their phones while in the bathroom. Many people, particularly those aged 18 to 24, check their social media while in the bathroom, and smartphones have made it possible for us to watch TV and surf the internet from the comfort of our own bathrooms.

Maybe you’re using a secret-sharing app while you’re in the bathroom. People have certainly shared secrets about what they like to do in the bathroom, from singing and dancing to reading and, of course, looking for murders behind the shower curtain. For as long as we can remember, people have been singing in the privacy of their bathrooms: a chance to use the shower head as a microphone, the running water to mask the sound of any wrong notes, the fact that no one can see – the bathroom is the ideal place for many people to unleash their hidden X Factor persona and let rip.

How Eco-Friendly Is Your Bathroom Behaviour?

What about our environmental values in the bathroom? Although American research found that 82% of people switched off the water when brushing their teeth, the majority of residential water use in the UK is from toilets and showers. Despite the fact that, in principle, showers are more environmentally friendly than baths since they use less water, this isn’t the case for power showers, which utilise 25% of all the water used in our houses daily.

Even if showers are faster and more effective, a lot of people still go to the bathroom for a soothing soak in the tub, complete with opulent bath oils and scented candles. In fact, 1 in 10 women and 1 in 20 men like to take a relaxing bath. Could this toilet behaviour, however, become excessive? The risk of drowning doesn’t appear to alarm individuals who routinely sleep in the bath.  This can however obviously be a contentious topic, even though those of us who don’t believe it’s a dangerous activity think it’s something that quite a few of us do, especially ladies.

What About the Bathrooms at Work?

Do you think that is all? According to a new international poll, there is a lot more going on in bathrooms all around the world. The workplace bathroom is a safe haven for a variety of activities. In today’s world, when smoking is one of the most socially undesirable things you can do, it appears that some people still slip off to the bathroom at work for a cigarette or increasingly the use of their vape. Perhaps more importantly, people use the bathroom as a place of refuge, with many admitting to taking power naps in the bathroom, taking some time out to contemplate, or to calm down from job tensions, or even to cry. It is becoming normal for people to sneak a ‘toilet break’ in order to access something or someone on their phone in a restricted business setting.

What are the things we don’t do in the Bathroom?

Let’s take a look at what we DON’T DO in bathrooms. According to statistics, a substantial number of people do not wash their hands after using toilets. It also appears that, despite the fact that many of us use our phones in the bathroom, we are not always careful with them, with many individuals reporting their smartphones water damaged, which appears to be due to being dropped in the bathroom! It also appears that not all of us clean our teeth twice a day, with only 56% of women and 49% of men brushing twice a day.

Of course, all of this shows that, like everything else in life, our bathroom behaviour is never average. Perhaps the constraints of modern life are such that we use the bathroom as a haven, a place to escape to – whether it’s playing on our smartphones, reading, pretending to be Marilyn Monroe or simply spending hours in the bath. Whatever your bathroom habits are, you’re most likely not alone!