If the credit crunch managed to limp your sex life last year, then here are nine tips from an expert to help restore those lost charms in the bedroom.
Dr Ian Kerner, a New York City-based sex therapist, said that recession had taken its toll on people in general who were subsequently "having less sex".
"Fifty million people are stuck in a sex rut. The economy inhibits a person's libido because they feel stressed and depressed," Fox News quoted Kerner as saying.
The author of Love in the Time of Colic: The New Parent's Guide to Getting It On Again has proposed nine ways to help those looking to give a boost to their passion.
9 Ways to Reclaim Your Sex Life:
1. Just go ahead with it: "It might sound silly, but just have more sex. Your mind has become habituated to not having sex, so it's hard to break out of it. You have to reconnect."
2. Connect with each other: "You can't just turn sex on when it's time to go to bed. You need to build that sense of connection."
3. Stay positive: "Studies show that for couples to boost their sex life, they have to be positive. It's easy to go home and talk about mortgages and bills, but if it leads to a negative cycle of communication, figure out a positive form of communication."
4. Prioritise your relationship: "Couples are spending more time on Facebook and blogs. The next thing you know it's 11:30 pm and it's too late for sex. There's no urgent need to check your BlackBerry -- your relationship has to be a priority."
5. Adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle: "It's easy to binge at the end of December with the holiday eating and drinking. Get healthy and remain healthy. It will increase your sex drive, and exercise will boost your self-esteem, which is crucial to enjoying sex."
6. Reveal fantasies: "In sex, you often do the same things, rely on the same moves. Share a fantasy. Or, if you feel your partner is lacking in attentiveness, instead of criticising, express it in a sexy way."
7. Lend a helping hand: "A lot of women aren't interested in sex because they have other things on their minds like chores, dirty dishes and men can't always appreciate that aspect. If men help and create an environment where women want to have sex, that's really important."
8. Be honest: "One of the benefits of being in a relationship is that sex isn't perfect -- guys are subject to their issues, women are subject to theirs. If in '08 you were saying something didn't matter, (maybe) it does in '09. Sex changes from year to year and '09 is a new year."
9. Create the right environment, "the love nest": "Put a little more energy into your surroundings. Create a surrounding that appeals to your senses."
