It can. When you’ve had a lot to drink, an erection can be harder to get or keep, because alcohol slows the signals between your brain and your penis and dulls arousal. Regular heavy drinking also raises the risk of lasting erectile dysfunction (ED): over time it can harm blood vessels and nerves, and lower testosterone. Cutting back often helps, though how much depends on how long and how heavily you’ve been drinking. If problems continue when you’re sober, see a doctor. Keep It Hard, a program in The Coach app, trains three things erections depend on: your pelvic floor, how your body handles stress and your arousal.
Answer a few questionsAn erection starts in the brain. When you’re aroused, nerve signals make the blood vessels in your penis relax and fill with blood, and your pelvic floor muscles help keep the blood there. Alcohol slows down your nervous system, which is why drinking can get in the way.
The more you drink in one evening, the more likely you are to notice these effects:
If you also lose your erection during sex on nights you haven’t been drinking, our guide to losing an erection during sex covers the other common reasons.
Yes. Excessive drinking is one of the known physical causes of erection problems. Drinking heavily for months or years affects several things that matter for erections:
Drinking is one of several habits that affect blood flow, and our guide to increasing blood flow to the penis covers the others.
Often it improves, but nobody can promise a full recovery or say how long it will take. Trouble after a night of drinking usually passes once the alcohol wears off. After long-term heavy drinking, research on men who stopped has found that erections improved for many of them within a few months, though not for all. If you drink heavily every day, talk to a doctor before you stop: stopping suddenly can cause dangerous withdrawal symptoms.
How much your erections improve, and how quickly, depends on:
Whether you’ve stopped drinking or are cutting down, Keep It Hard helps you calm the stress response that sends blood away from the penis and train the pelvic floor muscles that keep it there. A few questions show you where to start.
Losing an erection after a few drinks happens to many men. The trouble starts when one bad night leaves you worried about the next. Worry about sex sets off the fight-or-flight response, which sends blood to your arms and legs and away from your penis, so the problem can come back even when you haven’t been drinking.
Three habits keep this cycle going:
When worry has become part of the problem, our guide to psychological erectile dysfunction explains how to break the cycle.
If you drink, these six habits make erection trouble less likely:
Feeling nervous puts your body into fight-or-flight mode, which sends blood away from your penis. Box breathing works the other way: slow, even breaths help your body relax, which matters for getting and keeping an erection. Unlike a drink, it calms you without making an erection harder to get.
Practice it three times a week for three weeks, and use it whenever you feel tense, including before sex. One round goes like this:
Box breathing is one of the calming exercises in Keep It Hard, along with a grounding exercise for anxious moments. Each practice you try goes into your daily plan.
Drinking less is the first step. If worry or another cause is involved, it needs work of its own.
Keep It Hard isn’t a program for cutting down on alcohol. It’s for men who want stronger, more reliable erections. Its 17 lessons cover how erections work, anxiety, the pelvic floor and sex with a partner. Practice takes about 10 to 20 minutes a day. It doesn’t diagnose or treat medical causes; that’s your doctor’s job.
Breathing and grounding exercises, work on self-critical thoughts, and a plan for the situations that set off worry.
A check for a tense or weak pelvic floor, followed by relaxation, stretching or Kegel training to match.
Solo exercises for letting an erection fade and come back, and for feeling at ease with a soft penis.
Your answers decide which practices your plan starts with. From then on, Keep It Hard sets out what to do each day.
Erection problems that keep coming back deserve a doctor’s check, even if you think alcohol is to blame. They can be an early warning sign of heart trouble, appearing some 3 to 5 years before any heart symptoms. Get checked, or ask for help, if:
To read about the other causes and how doctors look for them, see our guide to erectile dysfunction.
One night like that doesn’t mean you have erectile dysfunction; the alcohol is the most likely reason.
If you were with a partner, a few honest words help: say it was the drink and that you’d like to try again. Next time, start sober and take it slowly, so that touch and foreplay take the pressure off your erection.
If you catch yourself dreading the next time, deal with that worry early, before it becomes a habit. Box breathing before sex is a good place to start.
These figures come from a survey of The Coach users after their first four weeks. They show what users reported, not a result every man will see.
For a few weeks, note each time you have sex or masturbate: whether you’d been drinking and roughly how much, how firm your erection was and how tense you felt. Notice, too, whether you still wake up with erections: if you do, your body can still respond. If problems show up only after drinking, drinking less comes first. If they happen when you’re sober as well, something else is involved: often worry, sometimes a health problem worth a doctor’s check. Keep It Hard’s lesson on triggers helps you prepare for the moments that make you anxious, and the quiz sets up your plan.
Reviews from men using the app, in their own words.
“This app is just what I needed when my confidence was at an all time low. I felt stressed and completely lost all interest to the point where I struggled to get it up. But then I took a chance on this app. Daily listening and going through the exercises sometimes even half-mindedly. Well! Let’s just say she definitely noticed the change and now can’t seem to get enough of it 😁👍”
“I have known all these exercises for a while but I was not able to stay consistent for a long time. I like that the app is engaging and makes you keep coming back to do your workouts. I also like that includes breathing exercises and psychological aspects as well. So it is all in one.”
“I wish I found this app 20 years ago when I got married. I saw the ad and read the symptoms I could check most of the boxes. I take medication as a last resort, so when I saw the natural approach I thought I would give it a try. I am happy for the results I have gotten and I appreciate the tips and advice. Thank you The Coach Team”
“EXPERIENCE THE COACH Before signing on to the coach I struggle have erection. I started using the coach in the first week of January, 2026 and by the 2nd week I’d already started seeing improvement in my erection. The Coach is not only about kegel exercise but is a complete package and includes psychological , emotional and physical exercise as well and this has improved my wellbeing in all these areas.”
Keep It Hard was developed with specialists in men’s health, among them urologists, an internal medicine doctor, physical therapists, a sex therapist and a sex coach.
Gerard Greene
Specialist men's health physiotherapist and senior lecturer at Coventry University.
Dr. Susie Gronski
Licensed physical therapist, certified sexuality counselor, and founder of a men's pelvic health clinic.
Natalie Goldberg
Certified sex and family therapist dedicated to improving intimate relationships and personal well-being.
Dr. Amy Pearlman
Board-certified urologist specializing in male sexual wellness, performance, and hormonal health.
Dr. Justin Houman
MD, UCLA-trained urologist and male reproductive specialist focusing on sexual health.
Cameron Fraser
Australia's leading men's sex coach, specializing in male sexual wellness and performance.
Ben Greenfield
13-time Ironman triathlete, bestselling author, and recognized expert in health, fitness, and performance.
Dr. Gary Shlifer
DO, board-certified internal medicine physician specializing in preventative care, nutrition, and anti-aging.
Yes. A night of heavy drinking can keep you from getting an erection until the alcohol wears off, and drinking heavily for months or years is a known cause of lasting erection problems. Light or moderate drinking is much less likely to cause trouble on its own.
Alcohol slows down your nervous system, so the signals that start an erection get weaker and touch feels duller. The more you’ve had to drink, the stronger the effect. It wears off as you sober up, and on its own it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you.
There’s no reliable trick. Stop drinking, have some water and slow down: more time, touch and foreplay give your arousal a better chance, and sex can wait until the morning. If you take medicine for erection problems, ask your doctor or pharmacist whether it’s safe to combine with alcohol.
Not really. What matters is how much alcohol you drink, not whether it comes from beer, wine or spirits. No drink treats erection problems, and the calories in beer and other drinks can add to weight gain, another risk factor.
After a night of drinking, usually until the alcohol wears off, often by the next day. After years of heavy drinking, it can take months to ease once you cut back. If trouble continues when you’re sober, ask a doctor to look for other causes; our guide to sudden erectile dysfunction explains what to check.
They can, especially if you drink heavily. Smoking and heavy drinking both affect the blood vessels that supply the penis, and the risks add up when you do both. Cutting back on either helps, and quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for your blood vessels; our guide to smoking and erectile dysfunction explains how smoking affects erections.
No. The breathing exercises, the arousal exercises and the pelvic floor training are done alone, and the touch exercise for couples has a solo version. The lessons on foreplay and positions are for when you have a partner.
About 10 to 20 minutes. Some practices are daily and others a few times a week; your plan shows what to do each day.
Drinking less gives your nerves and blood vessels a chance to recover. Keep It Hard works on other things erections depend on, with pelvic floor training, calming exercises and lessons for sex with a partner, in about 10 to 20 minutes a day. A few questions get you started.
