How to Increase your Sex Drive

Healthy Body, Healthy Drive

Maintaining good health enhances nearly every facet of your life, and your sex drive is no exception. Here are various adjustments you can implement to rekindle a diminished libido. Before embarking on significant lifestyle alterations, it's essential to consult with a medical professional regarding any underlying health concerns that might be contributing to a reduced sex drive or hindering your ability to make the following lifestyle changes. The bedrock of these changes is making sure you get a good night's sleep consistently. 

Quality sleep is a fundamental aspect of a healthy life. Poor sleep can lead to complications like high blood pressure, heart disease, and what we are focusing on lower sex drive. For those with penises, this is due to testosterone levels dropping. Testosterone plays a big part in having a healthy sex drive, so making sure your testosterone is in check is something you should practice, whether you have a penis or not. Fortunately, the solution is quite straightforward. Sleep better and for longer. How much sleep you need to be healthy depends on you and your lifestyle, but generally, it’s recommended for adults to get somewhere from 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night. To improve sleep quality, you can:

• Cut off electronic use for 30 minutes to an hour before going to bed
• Make sure the room you sleep in is a comfortable temperature (somewhere between​ 60 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit or 16-20°C)
• Keep your room as dark as possible.

Once you get your sleep habits down, diet is the next vital pillar to a healthy sex drive. Your diet plays a significant role in ensuring you are feeling healthy sexual desire. In a previous article, we compiled a list of foods that can enhance your sexual performance, which can be found here. To summarize, foods like pomegranates, salmon, and avocados can help boost different aspects of sexual and overall health due to their unique nutritional properties. 

Lastly, you have to get off the couch and start moving! Exercise has been shown to boost testosterone, which as we said with sleep, plays a part in sexual desire and drive. Strength training in particular is a great way to boost your testosterone levels, but that doesn’t mean you should count out cardio and endurance training. Cardio leads to a healthy heart and has several benefits for the penis if you have one.

Sex drive is not too different from other aspects of sexual health. Living a healthy physical lifestyle is a great start to fixing some of the problems you may face. However, at times mental health is just as important.

The Mental Aspect 

Now that we know the physical health habits that can help our sex drive, it’s time to start looking inward. Low sex drive can be caused due to conditions such as depression and having too much stress in your life. While these tips are great starting points, if you are suffering from any sort of depression, it would be much better to seek help from a licensed professional. With that, here are a few things you can do to help your mental health for sex drive.

Everyone deals with periods of stress. During these times, sex might be the very last thing on your mind. This might be because, during times of great stress, the body releases a hormone called​​ cortisol. This hormone is meant to give you the energy you need to deal with the stresses in life for a short time. However, when stress goes on too long and becomes chronic stress, cortisol starts to reduce sexual desire.  

Luckily, we already covered some ways to lower cortisol and your stress levels in this very article! Things like getting enough sleep and exercising are a good start in managing stress. From there, masturbation is another great way to reduce stress and help you relax. Not only does masturbation help release “feel good” hormones and chemicals to help you relax, but it was also found that people tend to fall asleep fast when they masturbate and even experience better sleep quality. It seems like masturbation helps with two different healthy habits to raise sex drive; sleeping better and reducing stress!

Physical health; check, mental health; check. We covered what kind of habits you can do to increase your libido. However, before we close this article out, there is one last thing we can do to have a higher sex drive. Have more sex! Having sex can help raise your libido and taking specific actions during sex can help sex more desirable. Good sex is a surefire way to make you want more. Focusing on the foreplay with your partner is great for really getting your engines firing before the climax. For the vagina, foreplay stimulation is essential for getting lubricated naturally, with many reporting that clitoris stimulation is vital for getting an orgasm.   

Summary

Raising your sex drive starts with living a healthy lifestyle. Sleeping enough, eating enough of the right foods, doing some exercise, and making sure that you are taking care of yourself mentally. From that starting point, you can find making sex more enjoyable for you and your partner is another great way to further increase your libido. That being said, remember that sex drive tends to fluctuate naturally. There is no need to worry if your sex drive is high sometimes and lower in others. It happens. But if you find that your sex drive is low for a long period of time, try these tips and see what works for you!