The time you decide you want to start trying for a baby tends to depend on a lot of things. Whether it’s your career, financial planning, relationship status or life goals, it’s hard to know if you’re ready to settle down. Now according to a new study in Human Nature, there could be one more factor affecting your broodiness… Your choice of clocks. So how is that clock making an impact? Researchers at Florida State University decided to start asking men and women what age they wanted to get married and start having a family. As well as asking them what qualities they were looking for in a mate, the participants were asked how their parents prioritised having children. What the participants didn’t know was that in half the interviews, a clock could be heard ticking close by. In other interviews a silent clock was placed in the corner or there was no clock at all. So what difference did the clock make to the results? Women who were seated in a room with an audible ticking reported wanting to have children at a younger age and were more willing to bend their desired characteristics in a mate to settle down. For women who reported backgrounds where parents had prioritised having children, the age for wanting to settle down greatly increased again. According to the findings, researchers believe that the subtle ticking subconsciously acted as a subtle reminder of time passing and a biological clock. Men were shown to have no difference in their desire to settle down when including or removing a ticking clock, although researchers believe this is linked to their longer fertility cycles. So if you’re not planning on settling down just yet, it might be time to change those clocks in the bedroom…