Sauna Therapy and Mental Health: Research on Mood, Stress, and Recovery
Sauna-bathing is a popular wellness activity rooted in ancient tradition. Many people use saunas for relaxation and stress reduction, yet the true extent of effectiveness of lifestyle therapies like this tends to be underestimated.
Research finds many benefits of using saunas, including improved well-being, sleep, and even cardiovascular health.[1]
This article will clarify how sauna therapy can support mental health, with particular attention to stress, depression, and psychosis. We’ll explore how saunas impact the body in order to explain their health benefits and answer some FAQs about saunas and mental health.
We will discuss:
- The main benefits of sauna therapy on mental health
- How saunas impact the body to reduce stress and other mental health symptoms
- FAQs about using saunas to improve mental health
Key Benefits of Sauna Therapy on Mental Health
Wellness activities like sauna-bathing fall into the category of lifestyle psychiatry, a branch of healthcare that focuses on natural methods of healing and healthy lifestyle habits. You’ll also find things like cold water therapy, breathwork, light therapy, and yoga under this umbrella. As we’ll explore later, activities like sauna-bathing can form one part of a holistic mental health plan, but shouldn’t totally replace other treatments.
Nearly a third of people who use saunas have a medical condition. Of these people, those with back pain or mental health issues experience the greatest improvements from using saunas.[1] While this article is focused on how saunas can improve psychological health, it’s important to acknowledge the physical benefits, too.
Most people who use saunas do so to reduce stress, relieve pain, and socialize, but there are many other benefits:[2] This amount of stress relief could explain why saunas provide a kind of heat therapy and alleviate mental health symptoms across the board, as high cortisol levels are associated with many clinical conditions.
Effect of Saunas on Depression
A study invited participants to use the sauna every day for four weeks and found it reduced depression symptoms, lowered anxiety levels, and improved appetite.[3] As we’ll explore later in this article, people with depression could benefit from sauna-bathing more than others because of a higher internal body temperature.[4]
Saunas for Addiction
When sauna-bathing was added to the treatment protocol at long-term residential substance use centers, it was found to be well-tolerated and connected with improved emotional symptoms.[3]
This suggests that using saunas can be a supportive therapy alongside other treatments.
Sauna Therapy and Psychosis
A 24-year-long Finnish study found that men with no history of mental illness were less likely to develop psychosis if they used the sauna 4-7 times a week, compared to once weekly.[3],[2]
This frequency may seem high, but it’s common in Finnish culture to sauna-bathe on a weekly basis.
These findings could be explained by a few factors:[2]
- The frequent enhancement of pleasure, well-being, and relaxation reduces the feelings and stressors that can trigger psychotic symptoms.
- Saunas provide opportunities for friendship and connection, which can decrease feelings of isolation – another stressor involved in the development of psychosis.
- The impact of saunas on cortisol levels could play a part in lowering the risk of psychosis because people with psychotic disorders tend to have higher levels of cortisol.
How Does Sauna for Stress Reduction Work?
Though it’s clear that saunas can have huge benefits for depression, anxiety, cardiovascular function, athletic performance, and inflammation generally, the reason for this isn’t totally clear.1 Here are some of the suggested reasons for how saunas positively impact us:
Blood Pressure and Hormones
Experts suggest that saunas provide relaxation therapy and other health benefits because of how they affect our blood vessels and immune response. Inside a sauna, the body’s internal temperature can go up from 99F to 102F. As blood vessels dilate and you begin to sweat, blood pressure comes down.[1],[5]
Another explanation for the health benefits of sauna-bathing could be hormonal. Inside a sauna, the hormones associated with physiological stress and endorphins increase, causing a boost in mood and relaxation.[5] Mood improvement from saunas is essentially an endorphin rush, similar to the euphoria people experience after exercise.[6]
Social Togetherness
Furthermore, saunas are a haven from the outside world and the norms that we tend to live by. They could be powerful for well-being because they invite people to sit in close proximity and minimal clothing to endure an extreme experience together. For these reasons, adults may experience increased wellness from a sense of togetherness in saunas.[5]
So, while there are biological explanations for the lowering of stress, it’s worth acknowledging how sauna-bathing can be a lifestyle habit. Its power could be in how it allows relaxation time or camaraderie with people.[2]
Depression and Temperature
New scientific findings suggest that people with depression tend to have a higher body temperature and that when they recover, their temperature tends to become more regular.[4]
As a result, temperature-based treatments (particularly infrared saunas) could be effective at reducing symptoms of depression. This is because saunas engage the body’s self-cooling abilities through sweat and the dilation of blood vessels.[4]
It may seem counterintuitive because saunas initially increase your body temperature. However, heat causes the body to lower its internal temperature more effectively than cooling down in an ice bath.[4]
Though it’s unclear, our body’s internal cooling system may be responsible for an anti-depressant effect.[4]
The “Totonou” State
In Japan, the intense feelings of happiness that occur after sauna-bathing and cold therapy are known as totonou. This word means to be prepared or arranged, as though the sauna restores someone’s original abilities. Research into the brain activity during totonou finds interesting evidence for the effects of sauna-bathing:
- Alpha and theta brain waves increase from sauna-bathing, which are associated with relaxed wakefulness, drowsiness, internal attention, reduced cognitive effort, and meditation.[6]
- Our brains become more efficient after a few rounds of sauna-bathing and cold therapy, requiring less conscious effort to respond to things in our environment.[6]
FAQs for Using Saunas for Mental Health
Research into the benefits of saunas finds that people who use saunas between 5 and 15 times a month see the greatest improvement in mental well-being.[1] This suggests that using a sauna more frequently will bring stronger results.
Sauna-bathing is often combined with cold therapy, whereby someone lowers themselves into an icy cold bath of water or takes a cold shower. Both cold exposure and heat exposure can have mental health benefits, so you might want to combine the two.[3] This is known as contrast therapy, popular in sports medicine.[5]
What Type of Sauna Should I Use?
Most of the research cited in this article is based on traditional Finnish saunas, which are the most common type. These saunas can be heated with electricity or by burning wood, and tend to be drier. You’ll get bursts of humidity when water is dropped onto the stones heated by the stove, but steam rooms are much more humid.[7]
While traditional Finnish saunas vary from 150F to 195F, steam rooms tend to be between 110F and 120F. Steam rooms aren’t technically saunas, but do qualify as heat therapy. In these rooms, water is boiled to produce a high amount of steam, bringing the humidity to 100%.[7]
Infrared saunas are a newer technology that heat your body instead of the surrounding air. They tend to be less hot than traditional saunas, typically reaching a maximum of 140F.[7] If you’re worried about comfort, but still want to engage in heat therapy for your mental health, an infrared sauna may be a good place to start.
Should Sauna-Bathing Replace Mental Health Treatment?
Perhaps due to the often-intense side effects of antidepressants, many people are drawn to alternative therapies like sauna-bathing and cold therapy. While these therapies are supported by research to improve well-being, not everyone can rely solely on holistic approaches.
If you’ve been prescribed medication by your doctor or psychiatrist, it’s not advised to immediately stop in favor of sauna-bathing. In addition, you shouldn’t suddenly stop therapy sessions. Alternative therapies are often known as adjunctive therapies, which means they can be highly effective alongside other mental health treatments.
While trying out sauna-bathing may be OK for those wanting to manage stress and improve mood, those with diagnosed conditions should consult their primary care provider first. In addition, those with symptoms that are severely impacting their daily lives should seek professional support instead of seeking recovery through sauna therapy.
Are Saunas Safe and Effective for Everyone?
Saunas can certainly be a natural therapy for anxiety and other mental health symptoms. While they tend to be well-tolerated and safe for most healthy people, there are some exceptions.
Adverse effects of saunas include dizziness, dehydration, and headache, but tend to be minor rather than severe. More importantly, those with serious infections, unstable heart conditions, or who’ve had a heart attack recently should consult a medical professional before entering a sauna.[1],[2]
Furthermore, some evidence suggests that people with schizophrenia may struggle to regulate their body temperature, so should be careful with saunas.[2]
It’s also important to note potential biases in the research about sauna usage:
For example, although one significant global study surveyed almost 600 people and found positive results, the respondents were mostly regularly exercising and non-smoking.[1] As the people surveyed were already health-conscious, it could be that their other health-promoting activities were contributing to feelings of well-being.
This demonstrates how important it is for these wellness approaches to form part of a healthy lifestyle, instead of being relied upon as a single cure.
Mission Connection: Personalized Mental Health Treatments
You’re likely to feel more supported when your mental health treatment is personalized. That’s why, at Mission Connection, our licensed practitioners can integrate a wide range of approaches into your treatment plan.
If you would like to incorporate an alternative therapy, such as sauna-bathing, we can talk with you about working it into your treatment. We understand the powerful potential heat therapy holds for recovery, and want to provide personalized care wherever possible.
We treat a wide range of mental health conditions with many different approaches. Not only can your therapy be online or in-person from multiple facilities, but you can also choose between therapies like CBT, narrative therapy, psychodynamic therapy, and many more.
Get in touch to start your therapy journey or learn more about your symptoms by taking a self-test.
