The primary purpose of saunas is to heat the body enough to induce sweating and promote relaxation. Traditional saunas do this by heating the air to temperatures of up to 170oF, but infrared saunas work differently. Instead of heating the air, they heat the body directly and can thus operate at lower temperatures.

How Infrared Saunas Work

Infrared saunas confer the same benefits as regular steam saunas, but without being too hot for most people to tolerate. The infrared heating elements turn on, and the light is delivered to the skin with zero RF. This causes the body to break a healthy sweat without raising its core temperature to potentially unsafe levels.

Temperature Requirements and User Safety

Ordinary saunas typically reach temperatures of between 150- and 195-degrees Fahrenheit, with many users setting their sauna thermostats even higher. Infrared saunas, on the other hand, only need to be heated up to around 110 degrees, although most people allow the temperature to gradually rise throughout their sessions to around 135oF.

To be clear, sauna users shouldn’t set their thermostats as high as they go for their first sessions. Experts recommend starting low and slow, setting the temperature to around 110, and staying in for just a few minutes. If that feels comfortable, start turning up the thermostat by five degrees before each session. Just be sure not to stay in the sauna for too long, even if it feels comfortable. More than 30 minutes of sauna bathing can place too much stress on the body, even in an infrared sauna.

Benefits of Lower-Temperature Sauna Bathing

The temperatures required to see health benefits with regular sauna use can be very uncomfortable. For some, they can be dangerous, or even fatal. As a result, most people can only spend up to 20 minutes in the sauna at a time.
With infrared saunas, discomfort is not an issue. Users can stay in the sauna for as long as they want, with most people opting for 30-minute sessions. During these sessions, the temperatures are hot enough to be relaxing, but not hot enough to raise core body temperatures above safe levels.

How to Determine the Right Temperature

Everyone’s temperature preferences are different, which is why infrared saunas designed for home use come with built-in thermostats. The best way to find a comfortable temperature that’s still hot enough to induce sweating and confer beneficial health effects is to start at the lower end of the spectrum, setting the temperature to around 100 degrees, then gradually elevating it.

What’s nice about infrared sauna bathing is that the temperatures are not high enough to require users to develop a significant heat tolerance. Plenty of people enjoy the relaxing effects of higher air temperatures, but they’re not necessary to take advantage of the health benefits of sauna bathing.

Choosing the Right Infrared Sauna for Home Use

Serious wellness enthusiasts who want to keep up a healthy sauna bathing practice often purchase small models for home use. This is an ideal solution for people who own their homes. Just be sure to do some research first and find a sauna that is well-constructed with natural materials and has a low EMF rating. The money spent on a high-quality home infrared sauna is easy to recoup by skipping those visits to the spa, so don’t cut corners.