We’ve all seen them – the DaySpa ads and influencer posts hyping up saunas as the best thing for your health since sliced bread (well, maybe not bread, but you know what I mean…) They promise detoxification, more energy, calorie burning… all things I am VERY interested in.
So I finally had to put it to the test: does sweating your butt off every day REALLY make that much of a difference?
The 30 Day Challenge
If you’re going to test the long term effects of something, you have to be consistent and give it time. After several hours of very intense Google searches, I determined that using the sauna for 30 days, 15 minutes each day, in the evening before bed would be enough to truly see if it made a difference.
Alleged Benefits
There’s a lot of alleged benefits to using the sauna daily. Some we can test with real data, but most we will just have to go off of feeling. For my 30-day sauna challenge, I decided to test 4 main benefits: detoxification, muscle recovery, stress relief, and improved sleep.
Detoxification
How it works:
Sweating promotes the release of toxins, including heavy metals and environmental pollutants, through the skin.
How we will test:
Am I sweating? Great. I’m detoxing.
Muscle Relaxation and Recovery
How it works:
The heat relaxes muscles, reduces muscle soreness, and alleviates pain by increasing blood flow.
How we test:
Track recovery time after intense workouts. I.e., am I too sore to stand the next day, or do I feel ready for another workout?
Stress Relief
How it works:
Sauna sessions lower cortisol levels (the stress hormone) while promoting the release of endorphins, which help improve your mood and reduce anxiety.
How we test:
Do I feel like screaming?
Improved Sleep
How it works:
The sauna helps relax your body and mind, lowering body temperature post-session, which can promote a deeper, more restful sleep.
How we test:
The best way to test this would be to use a device like the Oura Ring, which tracks your sleep and provides you with detailed data (including a readiness score!) If you don’t have an Oura Ring, thats ok. You know how your body feels, and you know when you're tired.
Another important note: make sure to always sauna safely by following these guidelines!
Stay Hydrated: Always drink plenty of water before and after your sauna sessions to prevent dehydration.
Listen to Your Body: If you feel dizzy, lightheaded, or uncomfortable, leave the sauna and cool down.
Start Slowly: If you’re new to sauna use, start with shorter sessions and gradually increase the duration as your body adjusts.
Avoid Overuse: Limit your time to avoid overstressing your body—no more than 30 minutes per session.
Use a Timer: To ensure you don’t overstay, set a timer for each session.
Rest Periods: Allow your body to cool down naturally before and after each session.
Week 1:
Wow. It’s hot in here.
The first few sessions were rough, I’m not going to lie. It’s hot. VERY HOT. But I will say, by the end of the week it became easier to tolerate.
The most immediate change I noticed was the quality of my sleep and muscle recovery. I would definitely only recommend the sauna at night, because even after just 15 minutes, I’m physically drained. Sitting in 150° is no joke. The feeling is comparable to spending a long day in the sun at the beach. You’re physically spent from the heat, and want nothing more than to curl up in a ball and get the best sleep of your life. And let me tell you, I did exactly that. I couldn’t shower and get into bed fast enough.
The second most obvious change was the dramatic difference in my muscle soreness. I weight train with a personal trainer twice a week and take cardio classes the other days, so being sore is a form of homeostasis for me.
(Life hack: did you know caffeine helps with muscle soreness? Seriously. It's wild.)
Using the sauna to warm up my muscles helped me stretch better and work out any built up lactic acid. The change was extremely apparent each morning.
Week 2:
Tip: Learn from my mistakes and don’t bring your book into the sauna. By day 2 the book binding glue was melting in the heat so badly that pages started to fly out.
Other than having a funeral for my hardcover copy of Stephen Fry's Greek Myths, week 2 went as well as week 1. My sleep was consistently better, and my sore muscles were less of a problem every day. In week 2 I was comfortable enough with the heat to actually stand and stretch vs. sit and stretch, which I also think made a difference.
As far as stress, I felt relatively normal. I do not consider myself a high stress person by nature, but I have been enjoying the intentional time to decompress and read a book for 15 minutes each night.
Week 3:
I’ve noticed a very interesting common theme in how much I sweat, making me a firm believer in the detoxification process... On the nights I have a drink or two with dinner, I easily sweat twice as much in the sauna afterwards. Same goes for fried foods! If I have greasy or generally unhealthy foods that day, I sweat much more than the days I have mainly protein and veggies. I’m sure this has a lot to do with the general sodium content in both, but the difference is worth noting.
My cravings were less too. Usually in the morning it's difficult for me to stay away from sugary / starchy treats and properly fuel my body, but detoxifying made it easier to stay on track.
(Right now I'm really digging the Breakfast Blend for early fall mornings. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't still go for a cold brew here and there as well.)
Muscle recovery is consistent, sleep is consistent, and one more perk has started to emerge: my skin is softer. Any hormonal breakouts I tend to see have majorly subsided, and I’m sure all the added showers after the sauna are helping that as well.
Week 4:
I gave in and officially sacrificed my book to the sauna-Gods. The book was falling apart anyways, and let's be honest… I needed the distraction from the heat. Those 15 minutes start to become rough when you don’t have anything to entertain yourself.
At almost a month in, I finally had what I can call a solid routine. Dinner, sauna, shower, bed. The only con I can report so far is that this routine takes more time than you would think. I’m lucky enough to have a sauna in my apartment complex gym, but between coming home, changing, washing my face (don’t wait to sweat makeup off!), going to the sauna, showering… it quickly becomes an hour + ordeal. This is fine if you plan for it, but you need to make sure that’s accounted for when planning your evening.
Final takeaways:
Did I notice a difference in my health after using the sauna every day for 30 days? Yes. Will I continue to use the sauna every day? No. Let me explain why.
Did I feel detoxified? Yes. Kinda? Maybe.
What I DID feel was less puffy, less congested, and more ready for the day each morning. Was that the sleep or the sweating? I’m not sure. But I still hold to the fact that I sweat more when I ate unhealthy and drank alcohol, and that’s enough proof for me that something was working.
Did I sleep better? 100% yes.
The heat really does suck the life out of you. Again, I would NOT recommend doing this in the morning. Maybe it was the mix of the heat + my general exhaustion from the day, but each night I was asleep hard and fast.
Did I have better muscle recovery? Yes, hands down.
Next to sleep, this is the most dramatic benefit I noticed. Stretching in the sauna gives way better results than your normal body temperature. The stretches are deeper and I felt more prepared to workout each morning.
Was I less stressed? Yes, but….
I think this one has more to do with the fact that I was setting aside intentional time to relax and decompress each evening. Creating routines have been shown to decrease cortisol levels on their own, and I think taking time to read and stretch in the sauna each night did more for my stress levels than heat alone. Would I have had the same effect stretching and reading in my living room? It’s hard to say. But what I can say is that I wouldn’t have reaped the same benefits of muscle recovery and sleep if I didn’t have the heat.
So, why WON’T I keep using the sauna every day? The bottom line: it takes a lot of time.
It’s hard to work a full time job and fit everything you need to do at home in the window of a few hours! So while I loved the results I experienced, I think the ‘happy medium’ is using the sauna only on heavy lifting days when you need that extra bit of muscle recovery (and don't forget that caffeine hack!) 3 times a week is what I believe will work for me, but I encourage you to take my experience and find out what works for you!
