Is your relationship a healthy one? Do you spend enough time together — and enough time apart? Do you argue? How do you show appreciation for one another? Intimacy isn’t the only sign you and your partner are on good terms — but it’s an important part of every couple’s lives. A struggling sex life can cause strain in other areas of your relationship — even though many causes of low libido are preventable.
What’s killing your sex drive? All your worst habits, basically. Let’s take a closer look at those (no shame).
Overeating
Indulging in the occasional snack food can quickly turn into a daily habit. Unfortunately, your weight isn’t the only thing that suffers. According to Livestrong.com, what you eat — or how much — can negatively impact your sex life. If overeating leads to obesity, you’re much more likely to experience low libido. Eating the right foods, and controlling your portions, could turn this problem around. Here are some foods that might give your sex drive a boost.
Taking antidepressants
Millions of Americans take antidepressants, and low libido is only one of many adverse side effects. Healthline says some antidepressants can have sexual side effects in both men and women. This category of drug raises your serotonin levels, which stabilizes your mood, makes you feel calm, and reduces feelings of anxiety. Unfortunately, this can prevent other hormones from responding normally to sexual activity, destroying your sex drive.
Drinking too much alcohol
Drinking doesn’t necessarily always boost your libido — especially if you go overboard. Going past one, two, even three drinks could be the reason behind your suffering sex drive. According to Everyday Health, as your blood alcohol levels increase, your sexual desire will most likely decrease. This doesn’t mean you have to stop drinking alcohol if you want to improve your sex life. Just stick to only a few drinks at a time and see what happens.
Staying up too late
Do you stay up too late, wake up too early, and miss valuable hours of sleep in the hours between? You’re likely killing your sex drive. There are a few reasons why this might happen. The first has to do with hormones. When you don’t get enough sleep, changes in your hormone production could decrease desire and arousal. The second pertains to how sleep deprivation makes you feel — terrible. When you’re in a bad mood, sex is often the last thing you want to deal with.
Going caffeine crazy
Caffeine provides enough health benefits that we tend to ignore its possible side effects — even the sexual ones. If you’re addicted to coffee, it wouldn’t be surprising if you were also dissatisfied with the quality of your sex life. According to Prevention, drinking caffeine can mess with your hormones, causing your body to produce more stress hormones and fewer hormones that influence arousal and desire. Cutting back on your caffeine intake might be worth the struggle after all.
Exercising too much
Exercise and hormones share important links. As you’ve learned already, this can either have great — or terrible — results when it comes to your sex life. Some evidence suggests too many high-intensity workouts can all but destroy a man’s sex drive. Moderate amounts of exercise can increase blood flow and put you in the right moodfor sex — so not exercising at all won’t help, either. Find a healthy balance between the two extremes.
Spending too much time with your partner
You don’t have to spend every moment of every day with your partner. In fact, doing so could negatively impact your sex life. Psychology Today recommends dedicating time for you and your significant other to spend both together and apart. That way, you can make your time together more worthwhile, both emotionally and physically, without feeling pressured to “perform” every moment you’re with each other.
Source: Cheat sheet
