It's Sauna Time
The gift of health, wrapped in heat
Health is the ultimate gift. There’s no advantage as beneficial as a clear mind and a body working in its optimal condition. There’s no joy on earth like energy, longevity, and peace. For my birthday this year, my fiancé and I are getting our own in-house electric sauna. It’s hands-down the best gift I’ve ever received: it secures all the benefits listed above. Within the past two years of my health journey, I’ve developed a lust-like desire for the sauna. It’s an urge from the depths of my body, something that dampens my mood if I don’t fulfill it, almost like an addiction. If the sauna can generate a kind of high, then it’s the only kind a person can (and should) live by. I owe this addiction to my fiancé. He was a toned, handsome thirty-year-old with incredible skin, infectious positivity, and a keen obsession with health and wellness. As our first summer together set the stage for a long-term relationship, I found myself picking up his healthy habits—all but one. His diet and exercise routine were impressive, but I couldn’t understand his saunaing. He’d dedicate four to five hours a week to the sauna, seeing it as just as important as his workouts to his overall health. I finally questioned him: How could sitting in a hot room be anywhere as effective as hitting the gym? Rather than argue, he told me I should try it the way he does it: cold-plunging in between ten (to twenty) minute sauna sessions at our local gym. This method changed my life.
While regular exercise kept me in a generally positive mood, saunaing and cold showering made me an enthusiastic, happy person all the time. I’d leave my local gym feeling incredibly awake on the outside, absolutely buzzing with energy, yet incredibly peaceful and mellow within. It fully revitalized me, aided my sore muscles, relieved my anxiety, and kept me even-keeled and alert. It made me feel... well, high. Suddenly, I was the one saunaing four times a week.
I desire this sort of dedication for everyone, not only for the high, but for all the incredible perks that come with it. It’s a beloved custom, practiced by cultures across the world for over 2,000 years–and there’s so many reasons why.
How The Sauna Works
When I say ‘sauna’, I’m referring to the two most common types: traditional Finnish wood-burning saunas, and electric saunas. Infrared saunas, shower saunas, and steam saunas all offer their own unique benefits, as well.
The sauna works by heating your skin and raising your core body temperature. It increases your heart rate, dilates your blood vessels, and speeds up your circulation. Using the sauna (as recommended) at a temperature of 155-195 ºF, for 15 to 20 minutes per session imitates the effects of low to moderate exercise. You’ll experience the same endorphin release behind a runner’s high.
The Sauna’s Perks
Endorphins are only a small perk to the practice. In the short term, saunaing helps reduce soreness and inflammation (infrared saunas in particular), it preserves muscle gains, and promotes weight loss. It’s the perfect addition to a new workout routine or wellness plan. Like exercise, the sauna is shown to boost one’s mood, not simply by increasing endorphins but by lowering cortisol levels as well.
Saunaing long-term (at least four times a week), the ritual improves heart health, blood pressure, respiratory tract function, and immune system function. Long-term studies reveal improved brain health, reduced symptoms of depression, reduced risk of respiratory diseases, and a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s. It promotes better sleep and improves cognitive function, making it exceptional for both your mind and body.
Contrast Therapy
Many of the sauna’s benefits are amplified through contrast therapy: cycling between hot and cold. Cold immersion, through methods like cold-showering or cold-plunging, has its own set of rewards by constricting the blood vessels and reducing inflammation. Cold immersion triggers a prolonged release of dopamine, improving your mood, energy, and focus, and even skin health: I see a noticeable glow in my skin from only one use, and accrue less blemishes when I’m consistent. The first cold shower after a sauna session certainly shocks, but by withstanding the cold from even one to three minutes (per 15 to 20 minute sauna session), the euphoric effects begin immediately. By stepping out of a cold shower or climbing out of an ice-bath, I feel my pain literally melt away. I’ve discovered that the more cycles of this contrast therapy I do, the stronger and longer-lasting the relief. Three cycles is more than enough–you’ll feel incredible all day, inside and out.
“I’d leave my local gym feeling incredibly awake on the outside, absolutely buzzing with energy, yet incredibly peaceful and mellow within. It fully revitalized me, aided my sore muscles, relieved my anxiety, and kept me even-keeled and alert. It made me feel... well, high.”
Contrast therapy benefits are similarly incredible for the mind and body: I’m an anxious person, but when I’m consistently saunaing and cold showering (especially when I reduce my caffeine intake), I have zero anxiety. I’m happier, clearer-minded, and have more energy overall.
I couldn’t recommend saunaing and contrast therapy more: if it’s not in your weekly routine already, it needs to be.
Exercise Caution
Quick disclaimer: some people shouldn’t sauna or do contrast therapy. Those who are dehydrated, drunk, high, pregnant, below the age of seven, or suffer from seizures, heart or respiratory issues. Excessive heat and excessive cold, especially interchangeably, can be risky. Be careful, and consult a doctor if you have concerns!
Do’s and Don’ts
I’m certainly far from an expert, but in my two years of falling in love with the sauna, it broke my heart to see so many people using it wrong. Though the sauna offers an abundance of ‘gifts’ , it has to be practiced correctly.
Do care about what you wear
It’s a common public sauna policy that clothes (at the very least, swimsuits) be worn while using public saunas. As obvious as this rule might seem, it’s dangerous for your health. Polyester’s lack of breathability, especially when wet, may cause overheating. You also put your skin at risk, since you’re essentially trapping yourself in a vacuum of your own sweat.
Your skin is meant to be rejuvenated by the sauna: you sweat out minerals such as iron, mercury, and other toxins. Recent evidence suggests that BPA’s, flame retardants, pesticides, phthalates, and other toxic chemicals are excreted through sweating at higher rates than via urination. It’s important that the sweat leaves your body, and especially that you shower post-sauna.
In polyester, bathing suit or not, these toxins cannot escape, and it severely limits the sauna’s magic. Heat causes polyester to leech microplastics, adding further to the toxins. Plus, the inhalation of melting plastic (at high temperatures, your PVC-laden bathing suit can melt) is toxic to the lungs.
Your best bet is to wear a towel, or better yet, nothing at all! That’s how the Finns do it, and they have more saunas than cars. The concept that nakedness would be ‘unsanitary’ is misguided—the sauna’s high heat kills the majority of microbes.
If your local sauna has a cover-up policy like mine did, cotton clothing is a comfortable workaround. A set of cotton shorts and a breathable cotton shirt will suffice, without the many risks of hot polyester.
If you’re concerned about the heat affecting your hair, a wool or felt sauna hat not only mitigates the risk, but helps regulate your body temperature, allowing you to enjoy the sauna even longer.
Do breathe through your nose
Nose breathing regulates your heart rate, conserves your energy, and cools down the air you’re breathing. Mouth-breathing risks dehydration through drying your throat and mouth, and I find it quickly depletes my sauna stamina.
Do pace yourself
Especially when you’re not used to saunaing, cold showering, or cold plunging, it’s important that you listen to your body. Ease in, and recognize your limits. While the sauna can become uncomfortable towards the end of your 10-15 minute session, it should never be painful or make you feel like you’re going to faint. Cold immersion is notoriously challenging, but if it makes you feel extremely uncomfortable or dizzy, cease activity.
Do drink plenty of water
It’s important to enter the sauna fully hydrated. Though this may seem obvious, saunas are often used post-workout, so it’s worth the reminder. Drink spring water during and after each session to replenish your body’s fluids and minerals.
This leads me to the first tip in the ‘Don’t’ category:
Don’t bring plastic water bottles into the sauna.
The same way you shouldn’t wear plastic in the sauna, don’t drink out of it, either. Plastic and heat are a match made in hell. When heated—yes, even reusable, ‘BPA-free’ plastic water bottles—will excrete microplastics, one of many toxins you want to be sweating out.
I suggest either bringing a water bottle to place outside the sauna to drink from in-between, or taking a sauna-safe bottle in with you. While glass wouldn’t leach, broken glass in the sauna (a big risk considering you get slippery from sweat) is a major hazard. Don’t impede your own progress: leave your water bottles outside the sauna or bring in a heat-safe kind.
Don’t use technology in the sauna
It should be self-explanatory, yet during many sauna visits I’d end up sitting with someone who’s scrolling through TikTok, making phone calls, or playing loud music through their AirPods. Excessive heat will damage your phone. It will damage your headphones. With the short amount of time one spends in the sauna, is momentary entertainment really worth the risk?
Don’t forget to relax and unwind
Regardless of whether or not you use your sauna session to meditate, I recommend that you try to focus only on your breathing while inside. The sauna is a space away from the outside world, and it elicits both physical and mental peace like nothing else can. Get the most out of it.
Especially while cold plunging or cold showering in between, the euphoria of the sauna is nothing short of divine.
This spiritual sensation is an ancient one: early saunas were considered holy places, where those who entered could gain magic powers. Modern science proves you still can. Try saunaing and/or contrast therapy. It’s the best gift you’ll ever give yourself.
This article was written by , an essayist, poet, and health enthusiast in her mid-twenties. Find more of her essays, reflections, and obsessions here:
This article was originally published in Issue 23 of the WARKITCHEN Magazine
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