How Sauna Therapy Reduces Stress and Promotes Mental Clarity
INTRODUCTION
Stress has become a part of everyday life in today’s hectic world. Each day, people experience several stressors including workplace pressure, finances, technology overload, and emotional dilemmas. It is becoming more important to find methods that are effective and sustainable in combating stress and promoting mental health. Of the many holistic and natural therapies available today, sauna therapy is coming to the forefront as a tool used to promote not only physical rejuvenation, but also mental clarity and emotional equanimity. In this article, we will take a look at how sauna therapy can serve to lower stress levels and engender a clear, focused mind.
What Is Sauna Therapy?
Sauna therapy is the practice of sitting in a heated environment to achieve relaxation and wellness – generally within a temperature range of 150°F to 195°F (65°C to 90°C) for traditional dry saunas, or 110°F to 140°F (43°C to 60°C) for infrared saunas. Generally sessions last from 10 to 30 minutes, which may be followed by a cooling period in order to restore the body’s equilibrium. There are various types of saunas, including:
- Traditional Finnish Saunas which use dry heat produced by wood-burning or electric heaters
- Infrared Saunas that use infrared light (heat) to directly warm the body
- Steam Saunas that create moist heat using steam.
Regardless of how they create heat, all saunas are attempting to raise the core temperature of the body in a controlled manner. The applied heat stress results in the body producing physiological responses that are accepted to support not only physical health, but also mental clarity and emotional well-being.
How Heat Affects the Brain and Body?
1. Activation of Parasympathetic Nervous System
Sauna therapy is essential in activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which creates the body’s “rest-and-digest” functions. Of course, the onset of heat can lead to an increase in heart rate and sweating, but more importantly it also brings deep relaxation. Once the body becomes comfortable with the heat, blood vessels dilate, circulation increases, and muscles start to relax. Sauna therapy promotes a calming physiological change, lowers stress, and creates calmness. This therapy is an excellent opportunity to help restore emotional balance and mental clarity.
2. Enhanced Brain Chemistry
The therapeutic effects of a sauna help promote the release of endorphins, which are the body’s natural pain-relief compounds and improve the mood, thus providing a deep sense of relaxation and well-being. Many other neurochemicals are released during sauna therapy. The release of neurochemicals like dopamine (which regulates focus and pleasure), serotonin (which stabilizes mood and is used to decrease anxiety), and norepinephrine (which improves alertness and clarity) create an altered state in the original new brain.
The resulting changes of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine lead neurologically to a good feeling, a permanently improved mental state and sometimes an emotionally fresh outlook after a sauna therapy session. Biochemically, the boost from sauna therapy is a major contributor to helping us to reduce our daily stresses and attenuate the biochemistry that gets in the way of our mental sharpness.
3. Cortisol Reduction
Cortisol (the primary stress hormone of the body) is essential for some acute stress and alertness, but when elevated over long periods of time it can lead to many mental health challenges; anxiety, insomnia, brain fog and depression to name a few. Sauna therapy is a natural, effective, and therapeutic intervention to manage those hormones. Studies show regular sauna therapy can lower cortisol levels significantly leading to calmness and emotional equilibrium. Lowering your body’s stress hormone levels through sauna therapy will help the body recover from daily pressures and support mental health.
Sauna Therapy Promote Mental Clarity
Sauna therapy is much more than simply relaxation; it contains many substantial advantages for cognitive function and mental clarity.
- Relaxation is one of the significant effects of sauna therapy through improved sleep. Increased sleep quality results from a well-regulated combination of both cooled body temperature and reduced cortisol levels at night due to regular sauna use. By allowing the body's circadian rhythm to present as guided and directed by melatonin production and lowered cortisol levels each night, improved sleep enhances cognitive functions such as: memory consolidation, emotions regulation, and decision-making.
- As sauna heat increases blood circulation throughout the body, cerebral circulation is enhanced by improved blood perfusion, guiding enhanced oxygen and nutritional delivery to the brain. Improved brain perfusion leads to evidence of enhanced focus and reaction times with less mental fatigue.
Psychological Benefits of Sauna Therapy
The psychological aspects of sauna therapy transcend the physical benefits and underscore the strong relationship between one’s mind and body.
- Saunas provide opportunities for both thought and stillness that are difficult to come by, presenting a special opportunity to detach from the digital world and constant stimulation of modern life. The quiet warm environment offers the opportunity for thought and reflection, as well as an emotional separation from the stresses of day-to-day life, which can be a reset for the mind.
- Sauna use can also elevate mood and have a reducing effect on anxiety levels. For example, in the 2016 JAMA Psychiatry journal, it was reported that whole-body hyperthermia almost conclusively reduced symptoms of depression across studies. Sauna therapy can also induce mild stress (hormetic stress) that strengthens the brain's ability to respond to emotional challenges in the future.
- And in cultures where sauna bathing is a shared experience, it often promotes social bonding and emotional connections, reinforcing the importance of human connection to emotional health. Sauna therapy impacts psychological health in holistic ways.
How to Integrate Sauna Therapy into Your Life
Incorporating sauna therapy into your way of life can be an uncomplicated yet effective means of increasing your mental health.
- If you are trying to experience great results, do your best to aim for 2 to 4 sessions weekly, as one of the most important aspects of building sustainable resilience to stress and emotional balance is consistency. The timing of your sauna sessions can also potentially affect your experience of that session—an early morning session can certainly boost your energy, focus, and alertness going into the day, while a later evening session will aid in relaxation and getting a good night sleep.
- To further enhance the psychological benefits, you may want to incorporate mindfulness practices during your sauna session, such as deep breathing, meditation, or gratitude reflection. You should also create, or aim to create, a tech-free environment to keep the tech-free atmosphere that promotes relaxation and mindfulness.
- It is also important to re-hydrate, and to drink lots of water before and after every sauna session. After your sauna, cool down afterward by taking a cool shower or taking enough time to let your body temperature regulate and stabilize. Don't drink alcohol or any stimulants prior to sauna use, as they can interrupt the healing process. When sauna therapy is performed mindfully and consistently, it is not a health and wellness habit; it becomes a regular internal retreat or habitual ritual supporting mental flow, clarity, and rejuvenation.
Final Thought
Sauna therapy is a natural method for decreasing stress and improving mental clarity. Sauna therapy works on the parasympathetic nervous system or “rest and relaxation system” to balance out stress hormones and to promote brain chemicals that work together to improve mood and focus which are both important for emotional and cognitive well-being. When done regularly with mindfulness, sauna therapy supports sleep patterns, gives an increase of mindfulness, and deeper reflection, ultimately returning you to a normal emotional state and providing improved focus of thought. With consistency and mindfulness, sauna therapy is more than a wellness habit, it is a ritual that empowers you on your journey to self-discovery, offers inner balance, and resilience to thankfully navigate through a busy lifestyle. A focused approach to self-care will easily translate to sustained emotional wellness.
Reference
- Janssen, C. W., Lowry, C. A., Mehl, M. R., Allen, J. J. B., Kelly, K. L., Gartner, D. E., Medrano, A., Begay, T. K., Rentscher, K., White, J. J., Fridman, A., Roberts, L. J., Robbins, M. L., Hanusch, K., Cole, S. P., & Raison, C. L. (2016). Whole-Body hyperthermia for the treatment of major depressive disorder. JAMA Psychiatry, 73(8), 789. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.1031
- Hussain, J., & Cohen, M. (2018). Clinical Effects of Regular Dry Sauna Bathing: A Systematic Review. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : ECAM, 2018, 1857413. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/1857413
- Patrick, R. P., & Johnson, T. L. (2021). Sauna use as a lifestyle practice to extend healthspan. Experimental Gerontology, 154, 111509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2021.111509
- Embrace the heat: the benefits of sauna. (2024, February 15). https://www.vailhealth.org/news/embrace-the-heat-the-benefits-of-sauna
- Chang, M., Ibaraki, T., Naruse, Y., & Imamura, Y. (2023). A study on neural changes induced by sauna bathing: Neural basis of the “totonou” state. PLOS ONE, 18(11), e0294137. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294137
