# Sauna benefits: what the evidence actually shows

Source: https://saunabenefits.uk/benefits/
Author: Kit Ellery · Updated 2026-11-04

**Short answer:** Regular sauna use is linked with lower risks of heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure in large Finnish studies, and short trials show a session lowers blood pressure and makes arteries less stiff. Evidence for mood, sleep, recovery and skin is weak. Saunas don't detox you, and the weight you lose is water.

## How strong is the evidence for each claim?

We grade each claim on human studies only, using [the four grades explained here](/about/evidence-grades/). The grade describes how sure we can be, not how big the effect is.

| Claim | Grade | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Heart health](/benefits/heart-health/) | Moderate | Decades-long Finnish studies link frequent saunas with far fewer heart deaths and strokes, and short trials show helpful changes in blood vessels. Not yet tested in long randomised trials. |
| [Blood pressure](/benefits/blood-pressure/) | Moderate | A session lowers blood pressure for a while, an 8-week trial found a lasting fall when saunas followed exercise, and a cohort study linked frequent use with less hypertension. |
| [Dementia and brain health](/benefits/dementia-and-brain-health/) | Weak | Two Finnish cohorts found less dementia among frequent users, the larger one with a smaller link. No trials, and no studies outside Finland. |
| [Mood and depression](/benefits/mood-and-depression/) | Weak | One small randomised trial of medical whole-body heating eased depression for six weeks. That was not a sauna, and no sauna trial has tested it. |
| [Sleep](/benefits/sleep/) | Weak | Most regular users say they sleep better, but that comes from surveys, not trials. |
| [Muscle recovery and fitness](/benefits/muscle-recovery/) | Weak | Small trials of 6 to 10 people hint at better endurance and recovery. |
| [Arthritis and joint pain](/benefits/arthritis-and-joint-pain/) | Weak | A small Dutch study found infrared sessions eased pain and stiffness straight afterwards in rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. No controlled long-term trials. |
| [Lungs and colds](/benefits/lungs-and-colds/) | Weak | One Finnish cohort linked frequent saunas with less pneumonia and lung disease. |
| [Skin](/benefits/skin/) | Weak | One small study found regular users had a more stable skin barrier. |
| [Detox and weight loss](/benefits/detox-and-weight-loss/) | None | Sweat carries tiny amounts of toxins compared with your kidneys, and the weight you lose is water that comes back when you drink. |

## Why does so much of the evidence come from Finland?

Finland has around two million saunas for five and a half million people, and most Finns use one every week. That makes it the one place where researchers can compare large numbers of people who use a sauna once a week with people who use one almost every day.

The key source is the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease study, which began in eastern Finland in 1984 and has followed more than 2,000 men, and later a group of men and women, for 15 to 25 years. It has produced most of the headline findings on this site. Two things follow from that:

- The results are consistent and the follow-up is long, which is rare for a lifestyle habit.
- They come from one population and one research group, and people who take saunas most often may differ in other ways. Researchers adjusted for smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol, fitness, income and more, but cause and effect is not proven.

That is why no claim on this page gets our top grade.

## What does a sauna do that might explain the benefits?

Sitting in a sauna at 80°C to 100°C raises your skin temperature to around 40°C and your core temperature by a degree or so. Your heart rate rises towards what you would see in moderate exercise, blood vessels in the skin widen, and you sweat. Afterwards, blood pressure falls for a while. Researchers think that repeating this regularly trains the blood vessels in a similar way to exercise. [What heat does to the body](/basics/what-a-sauna-does-to-your-body/) explains this in more detail.

## Is a sauna a substitute for exercise?

No. In the Finnish studies, being fit and using a sauna often were each linked with lower risk, and people who did both did best. In a randomised trial, adding a 15-minute sauna after exercise improved fitness and blood pressure more than exercise alone, but exercise did most of the work.

## Frequently asked questions

### What are the proven benefits of a sauna?

Nothing is proven in the strict sense, because there are no long randomised trials. The best evidence is for the heart and circulation: long Finnish studies link frequent sauna use with fewer heart deaths, strokes and cases of high blood pressure, and short trials show a session lowers blood pressure and makes arteries more flexible for a while.

### How often do you need a sauna to get the benefits?

In the Finnish studies the lowest risks were in people who used a sauna four to seven times a week, but two or three times a week was also linked with lower risk than once a week. Sessions in those studies were mostly 5 to 20 minutes at around 80°C.

### Is infrared as good as a traditional sauna?

We don't know. Almost all the long-term evidence comes from traditional Finnish saunas. Infrared cabins run cooler, and their research is mostly small studies, many in people with heart failure in Japan.

## References

1. [Laukkanen JA, Laukkanen T, Kunutsor SK. Cardiovascular and other health benefits of sauna bathing: a review of the evidence. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2018.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30077204/)
2. [Hussain J, Cohen M. Clinical effects of regular dry sauna bathing: a systematic review. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2018.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29849692/)
3. [Laukkanen T et al. Association between sauna bathing and fatal cardiovascular and all-cause mortality events. JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25705824/)
4. [Laukkanen T et al. Acute effects of sauna bathing on cardiovascular function. Journal of Human Hypertension, 2018.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29269746/)
5. [Lee E et al. Effects of regular sauna bathing in conjunction with exercise on cardiovascular function: a multi-arm, randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Physiology, 2022.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35785965/)
6. [Laukkanen T et al. Sauna bathing is inversely associated with dementia and Alzheimer's disease in middle-aged Finnish men. Age and Ageing, 2017.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27932366/)
7. [Janssen CW et al. Whole-body hyperthermia for the treatment of major depressive disorder: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 2016.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27172277/)
8. [Kenttämies A, Karkola K. Death in sauna. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2008.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18471223/)
9. [Sears ME et al. Arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury in sweat: a systematic review. Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2012.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22505948/)