A sauna or steam room refers to a small space where dry or wet heat sessions can be carried out. In most cases, they are made of softwood and have a heat source that can heat up to 190 degrees Fahrenheit. The steam or heat causes you to sweat while in the sauna.
While the facility offers many health benefits to your well-being, you need to use it in the right way to optimize those benefits. It is also easy to make yourself ill when using one in the wrong way.
In our guide, you can learn more about how long to stay in the sauna for detox and how many times per week is the recommended number of sessions you can have. (Learn if you can get tan when it’s cloudy)
How Often Should You Use the Sauna?
Specialists tend to recommend 20-minutes sauna sessions one to three times per week for maximum benefits. More than 20 minutes, and you can end up with dehydration.
However, you can adjust the number of sessions during one sauna visit, yet this depends on your health and physical fitness.
Is It Okay for Sauna every day?
It has been shown that people taking frequent sauna sessions can help protect against early death. A daily visit for the recommended times can increase health benefits.
Can I Stay in the Sauna for an Hour?
Most sources say the recommended sauna time should be no more than 30 minutes.
Brief 10 minutes sessions in a sauna can cause a person to lose a pint of water, weighing 16 ounces. Make sure you take it easy when sauna bathing and drink plenty of water to replace lost fluids when you leave the sauna.
If you spend too much time in the sauna, you can feel nauseous, get headaches, and feel an extreme thirst for the first time.
Too much of a good thing can make it worse, particularly if you have a dodgy heart and a longer session causes your body to overheat. (Find The Best Sun Glasses)
Is It Bad to Stay in the Sauna Too Long?
How long should you stay in a sauna is a question often asked by many people. Here you can learn a bit more about using a conventional sauna and a newer infrared sauna.
Traditional
The traditional sauna originated in Finland, but you can see them now in many hotels, spas, and gyms. Traditional saunas are wooden cubicles obtaining heat from heated stones.
Average temperatures are 160 to 194 F, and you increase humidity by pouring water on the heated rocks.
Many people using a sauna regularly find sessions of 30 minutes to 45 minutes suit them is they repeat these three to four times per week.
For instance, if you sit in the sauna once per week, you need up to three sessions with a break.
Excessive sessions can have the opposite effects and weaken your body. If you use the sauna daily, don’t take more than one session at once. It can increase blood flow quicker than if you were doing a hard workout.
Make sure you have a cold shower or go into fresh air between sessions so the body can cool down.
Ideally, relax and drink lots of water to rehydrate. Avoid alcohol, hard work, or a physical workout after your sauna.
It is vital to do this to carry out the elimination of toxins and pollutants from the skin.
Infrared
Infrared saunas are small cabins that have infrared heat emitters to raise temperatures to 100 to 150 F.
You don’t need higher as the infrared light penetrates your skin and increases body temperature from inside. You sweat without raising the temperature in the cabin.
Even with a lower temperature, you may sweat more; therefore, you’ll need time to adapt to this type of heat your first time.
When you begin using this sauna, you need 24 hours break between two sessions.
Also, they will be shorter in the beginning to maximize health benefits.
After around 3-weeks of use every other day, you may want a longer frequency sitting inside the steam room before another session. Don’t increase the times to more than 15 minutes increments.
If you drink lots of water to the required levels, you can safely enter this sauna once a day and 30 to 60 minutes per session. However, the general rule is to take a rest day every seven to ten days. (Find the Best Water Shoes for Men)
Sauna Care Tips
Now you can see how long you can stay in a sauna or steam room; you need to see how to do so safely.
- New to saunas, sit on the cooler lower bench.
- The first session shouldn’t last more than 10 minutes. More than this, and you will feel uncomfortable.
- Have a break of at least 10 minutes, take a cool shower, and go back for another session.
- After the second session, take a warm shower, drink a glass of cool water, and relax.
- Most sauna timers are marked in 5-minute intervals up to 15 minutes
- Most sauna bathers end up taking sauna sessions of a maximum of 30 to 45 minutes.
- Always listen to your body because your body’s tolerance to the heat can change depending on how you feel.
