While it’s likely you’ve heard about the general health benefits of using saunas, there is one key benefit that many people miss. Taking a sauna before bed may be the secret to getting the better sleep you’ve been looking for. This may come as a surprise to those who associate saunas with working out or socializing with friends, but there is a long history of using saunas before sleeping. And the more you think about it, the more it may sound like the right way to start out the evening. Saunas naturally relax us, sure, but there is much more going on in our bodies that makes saunas the perfect pairing for a good night’s sleep.
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Benefits of Using the Sauna Before Sleeping
There is a generous amount of benefits to simply using a sauna in your daily life. But on top of those, there are even more benefits to saunas tied directly to sleep.
Saunas Release Muscle Tension
Those who use saunas in tandem with their workouts are likely already aware of this major sauna benefit. But muscle tension isn’t only related to heavy workouts. Saunas are proven to help reduce overall muscle tension and lead to an easing of overall soreness. While this is great for those who regularly work out, office workers or just the average person can feel muscle tension too! Using the sauna in the evening before bed is a great way to cool down sore wrists, ankles, or any part of the body feeling strained. And I don’t have to explain that sleeping with muscle tension or soreness is its own kind of punishment.
Finnish researchers found that by using a sauna with existing symptoms of muscle pain, the majority of subjects in the test felt a meaningful reduction of that pain by the end of the study. Muscle tension doesn’t always come in the form of outright pain. Sometimes the body holds tension in ways that we don’t even realize. The shoulders and our jaws are two places where people tend to hold tension without even realizing it. Even if you don’t think that you have all that much muscle tension, there is a good chance you could feel even less. And using a sauna before bed is the best way to make that loss of tension lead to meaningful change in your life.
Saunas Can Help Reduce Stress
Anyone who has tried to go to bed while stressed about something knows that it is nearly impossible to fall asleep, let alone have a whole good night’s sleep while stressed. When we are stressed, the mind can wander to the point that falling asleep becomes genuinely difficult. And even worse, the more we think about the thing stressing us out, the more stressed we tend to get. It is then great news that using a sauna is a great way to reduce your overall stress. While reducing stress is helpful at any time of the day, it is especially helpful in the time right before we go to bed.
There are actually several bodily reasons why saunas help us reduce stress. The biggest reason is that using the sauna is good for our overall brain health. Regular use of the sauna leads to the release of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor which aids in the overall repair of our brain cells and can lead to better brain health. The high heat of the sauna also helps the body produce a chemical called norepinephrine, which scientists have found can directly lead to better concentration and a reduction of overall stress. The more often you use the sauna, the more your body will get used to using both norepinephrine and brain-derived neurotrophic factor for stress relief. So this means that the value of your stress relief is likely to increase the more frequently and regularly you use the sauna.
Saunas Can Ease Insomnia
A very exciting new study on sauna effects has shown that regular use of a sauna can help reduce the strength of a person’s insomnia. The study in question took several subjects who attested to suffering from regular insomnia and guided them in regular sauna use for several weeks. During the length of the study, the subjects gradually eased into a more normal and average sleep schedule. Insomnia can come from thousands of different causes but the most common is unusually strong stress. Making an evening trip to the sauna part of your nighttime ritual may be a great first step in reducing the overall strength of your insomnia.
The Best Way to Sauna Before Bed
Those interested in using saunas before bed should approach their soaking sessions slightly differently than those that are using saunas in the traditional way. Just a few small adjustments in your sauna ritual can go a long way in making your pre-sleep sauna trip even more effective.
Limit Your Alcohol Intake
On the evening that you plan on pairing a sauna trip with your bedtime ritual, try to limit your alcohol intake as much as possible. Alcohol is closely tied to making sleep more difficult, but on top of that, drinking alcohol near the time when you plan on taking a sauna puts you at increased risk of dehydration. While alcohol has long been rumored to be a sleep remedy, science proves that alcohol is exactly the opposite. Drinking alcohol before bed actually makes the body more active and less likely to have a fully restorative night’s sleep. So if you are looking to improve your overall sleep by using a sauna, the first step is to steer clear of all alcohol in the afternoon and evening of that day.
Try to Use the Sauna Close to Your Bedtime
While this may be difficult for people who use public sauna facilities, it is generally smart to use the sauna as close to your bedtime as possible when you plan on using the sauna to help your overall sleep quality. The sweet spot is less than an hour before you go to bed, but for many, this may be considerably difficult. Of course, for those who have in-house infrared saunas, it’s possible to use the sauna just minutes before jumping into bed. But for reasons we will explain later, there are a few key steps between the sauna and going to bed that you shouldn’t skip.
While it’s best to use the sauna as close to your bedtime as possible, don’t feel like you’ll be missing out too much if you can’t get in the sauna an hour before bed. The key benefits of sauna use largely happen without us even being aware. If you have a good sauna session in the midafternoon, there is no reason to believe that session won’t help you get to sleep better that night. The only effect that those who use saunas directly before bed benefit from is the outward relaxation and drowsiness that comes right after stepping out of the sauna. But since bedtime sauna also positively affects your brain health and lasting stress management, rest easy knowing your sauna use is helping you sleep no matter what.
Shower Before and After Your Sauna
It is common practice to take a shower before stepping into the sauna for sanitary reasons, and the same should be true after taking a sauna if you plan on pairing your sauna with your bedtime rituals. Those with infrared saunas especially may be tempted to use their saunas and then quickly jump into bed, but this is unsanitary. Simply wiping off your sweat after the sauna doesn’t do enough to remove the natural oils that you give off in the sauna. If you were to get right into bed after a sauna without a soapy shower in between, you’d find that your body odor could be much stronger than normal and that your sheets would need washing more frequently.
Being that showering after your sauna visit is a necessity, don’t get overly worried if your sauna visit isn’t directly before your bedtime. Luckily, most of the benefits of sauna use that positively affect your sleep happen over an extended period of time. While the initial drowsiness you feel after a sauna may wear off after an hour or so, don’t think that this means the major benefits to your sleep have worn off.
Best Type of Sauna to Use Before Sleep
Depending on the type of sauna you use before bed, you may be able to take advantage of certain benefits not found in other saunas.
Dry Heat Saunas (Traditional Woodburning and Infrared Saunas)
Luckily, both infrared and traditional saunas offer the same sleep-boosting benefits. The major benefit to infrared saunas, however, is that they are more frequently installed in homes in North America and Western Europe. While the opposite is true for Scandinavia, it’s much more common for someone to have quicker access to an infrared sauna in their home or very close to it than a traditional woodburning sauna. Another benefit to infrared saunas is that users can usually more fully control the overall light in the sauna. Especially when using the sauna before bed, having lower light during your session can make you even more prepared for bed.
The main benefits of using the sauna before bed happen on a cellular level and are due to the dry heat, which is similar in both traditional saunas and infrared saunas. This means that while someone could certainly prefer using one type of sauna over another, the key health benefits that lead to a better night’s sleep will come about through both a traditional sauna and an infrared sauna.
Wet Heat Saunas (Steam Rooms)
Steam rooms are not proven to have the same insomnia-reducing or stress-relief qualities as dry heat saunas but this doesn’t mean that steam rooms are bad to use before bed. Steam rooms can be as relaxing as a dry heat sauna. Plus, steam rooms have their own substantial collection of health benefits that may lead to better sleep. For example, steam rooms are great for clearing out a person’s sinuses. So if you are suffering from a cold, you may actually want to add an evening steam room trip to your to-do list. You may find that breathing at night could be easier and give you an overall better sleeping experience.
There is nothing outright bad about using a steam room before bed, but some of the more lasting benefits, like stress relief from the release of norepinephrine, aren’t connected directly to steam rooms. So yes, steam rooms can be good for better sleep but dry heat saunas are likely even better.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sauna Before Bed
Even after settling on whether or not you want to use dry or wet heat saunas before bed, there are still several common questions about best practices relating to sauna use before bed.
How Long Should I Use the Sauna Before Bed?
The amount of time you spend per session in the sauna is usually based on your level of sauna comfort and experience. For example, if you are wholly new to saunas, ten minutes is likely as long as you can stay in the sauna comfortably. But as you make saunas a more regular part of your routine, you’ll definitely be able to spend even longer. The maximum time per session ought to top out at 20 minutes. Spending more than 20 minutes in the sauna per session without a break will likely lead to more discomfort than health benefits, as a person can easily overheat or become dehydrated during that time. If you can comfortably stay in the sauna for 20 minutes at a time, great! But if that is too much for you, don’t feel like you are missing out on major health benefits. The major benefits of sauna use come about over several uses over a long period of time rather than through longer individual sessions.
Is it Safe to Sleep in a Sauna?
Certainly, no one is planning on spending the night in the sauna, but it is more than common for someone to close their eyes in the sauna and possibly doze off for a moment. Especially if you are using the sauna just before bedtime, it’s more than possible to accidentally fall asleep in the warm and soothing environment of a sauna. Falling asleep in the sauna is incredibly dangerous and ought to be avoided at all costs. Many infrared saunas have timers built into their systems to protect bathers from overexposure, but of course, traditional woodburning saunas don’t have such luxurious features. Falling asleep in the sauna can lead to dehydration, heat stroke, or skin irritation. So consider taking up one of two methods when using the sauna in an already drowsy state. First, set a timer on your cell phone or another device so that you don’t accidentally get lulled in the peace and quiet of the sauna. Option two, don’t sauna alone. Having a friend with you or by using a public facility, you greatly reduce the chances of falling asleep in the sauna.
Should I Jump Into a Lake or Pool After the Sauna?
Now, this is a question with a few answers. Traditional Finnish sauna rules dictate that after your session in the sauna, you must shock the body with a cold flash from a lake, a pile of snow, or a pool. Some may think that this sauna practice could make sleeping more difficult, but that is largely untrue. The cold water shock that comes after jumping in a lake is a temporary sensation that can lead to real satisfaction after drying off and getting warm.
But then again, there is a large faction of people who believe that jumping in cold water after the sauna makes it more difficult to get to bed. The good news is that there is no major health benefit that comes from the cold water that would make sleeping easier. This means that the best way to find out whether or not the cold water dip makes your sauna before bed experience better or worse is to try it for yourself! It is more than possible for two people with a similar temperament for saunas to have completely different preferences on this and still have better than normal sleep.
Conclusions on Using the Sauna Before Bed
Using the sauna before going to bed is a meaningful way to improve your sleep quality. The benefits that come about from sauna use, however, happen on two major levels. The first and most important level is the health benefits that happen on a cellular level and improve your overall bodily health. These benefits come largely from regular sauna use. This means that even if you use the sauna more than an hour before bed, these health benefits will likely still lead to a better night’s sleep for you. The other level of benefits is perception based. This is the sense of peace and drowsiness that comes about after using the sauna. The sense of well-being that comes after a sauna session contributes to the quality of your sleep, but these benefits are just that: perception. While it is great to use the sauna close enough to your bedtime to still have that feeling of serenity in bed is great, your body is doing incredible work behind the scenes that makes your sleep even more restorative beyond our immediate perception.