ONE in five people who drink alcohol have signed up to Dry January and are taking a month off boozing.

But if the thought of being sober for sex terrifies you, you’re not alone.

A whopping 81 per cent of us are too scared to get down and dirty without a little Dutch courage and 67 per cent have NEVER had booze-free passion with a new partner.

On the surface, alcohol is the ultimate sexual lubricant — helping us shed our inhibitions (as well as our clothes).

Yet it slows down the central nervous system, numbing every­thing below and inhibiting orgasm.

Want to ditch the drink and get drunk on love instead?

Here is our ultimate guide to sizzling sex without booze while readers reveal what it’s like going sober between the sheets and why, for some, drunken sex had dire conseqences . . . 

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DO SHAME BUSTING

GET comfortable with the kind of sex you want and don’t be afraid to ask for it.

Maybe this is something you’ve found tricky to do, which is why you prefer to use drink to lower your inhibitions.

Instead, normalise these desires and look at where your distortions came from.

Maybe it was when you were younger and your parents quickly turned the channel when a steamy sex scene came on TV.

Little things like this can add up and make us ashamed of our sexuality.

Why booze is a let down in love

BREWERS DROOP

IT is no secret that too much booze can cause problems for men getting – and keeping – it up.

Alcohol increases angiotensin, a hormone that causes blood vessels to narrow and which is linked to erectile dysfunction.

Men who regulary drink excess amounts of booze have a 60 to 70 per cent chance of suffering sexual problems, research shows.

INHIBITS ORGASMS

ALCOHOL depresses your central nervous system, numbing you down below and impeding your ability to feel sexual pleasure.

It does this by interfering with the signals between the brain and the nether regions.

After a heavy drinking session, fellas might find it harder to reach climax or could ejaculate too quickly, while women may find they struggle to orgasm or have less intense ones.

SUGAR SLUMP

BEER, wine, spirits and mixers are all laced with sugar, which can make you pile on the pounds.

The more overweight you become, the less sexual desire you feel and your libido suffers, according to studies.

DEPRESSANT

PEOPLE wrongly think alcohol is an aphrodisiac but over time it is a depressant which can impact every aspect of your life – including your sex drive.

Research shows those who are sexually satisfied lead healthier lifestyles and keep booze to a minimum.

UNSAFE SEX

WE are more likely to indulge in risky behaviour when we are drunk.
Several studies have shown there is a high correlation between alcohol and STDs.

Gonorrhoea is five times higher among women who binge drink when compared with women who do not drink at all.

GET FIT

NOT only does exercise help your mental health, it also releases happy hormones, which make you hornier and up your libido.

What’s more, couples who sweat together, stay together. Research shows exercising as a team builds relation­ship satisfaction and makes you feel closer.

It also boosts blood flow to the pelvic area, increasing your chances of orgasm.

PRACTISE EDGING

MEN can suffer from erectile dysfunction because they are anxious about their performance.

While it may be tempting to reach for a drink, the power is in your hands, as it were.

Practise “edging” in solo play or sex. Just as you’re about to orgasm, pause and stop the stim­ulation. Then, when you feel you’ve backed away from the edge of orgasm, you can continue.

The more you practise, the longer you’ll last in bed.

BUILD BODY CONFIDENCE

IF you have poor body image and hate being naked, learn to love yourself.

Stand in front of the mirror nude and tell yourself what you love then move on to the bits you like less and tell them you love them too.

Say: “I am beautiful and I am enough” while looking at yourself. Repeat these positive affirmations every day to boost your self-esteem.

SENSORY SEX

WHEN we are drunk, our senses and reactions are slowed down and we don’t notice smells, sounds and tastes as much — but these can be massively erotic.

Exciting your senses is a big trend for 2022, so there’s no better time to start.

Build a sexy song playlist and give your partner a sensual massage using hot candle wax from a massage candle.

You can also experiment with food play — sexy fruits such as strawberries are packed with vitamin C, which acts as a natural aphrodisiac by increasing blood flow down below.

You can up the ante by blindfolding your partner, heightening other senses.

SHARE FANTASIES

WRITE a sex bucket list about all the things you want to try with your passion partner and compare notes.

Break it down into three categories: Things you definitely want to do; things you might do and things you definitely don’t want to do.

If you’re too shy to say it out loud, email or text it to your partner instead.

GET APPY

SEXUAL wellness apps are a brilliant tool for those struggling for inspiration in the bedroom and don’t know where to start.

More than 165,000 people have downloadeded Lover (lover.io), to improve their sexual prowess.

Listen to it with your partner to build arousal or share what you have learnt by sending them a sexy voice note or email detailing exactly what you would like to do to them later.

TRY TANTRIC

TANTRIC sex is a great way to increase intimacy and tension and connect on a deeper level to enjoy more powerful orgasms.

Ditch the PJs and practise ten minutes of tantra in bed with your other half before you go to sleep a few times a week.

Synchronise your breathing with one another and slowly explore each other’s naked bodies with your hands but resist having intercourse.

While it may be hard, ahem, this will help build arousal, which will lead to bigger and better orgasms.

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