Infrared Saunas: The Reset Button Your Nervous System Has Been Craving

While blistering warmth can trigger the alarm bells, the gentle, penetrating heat of an infrared sauna makes a different kind of promise. It offers a targeted challenge designed to help you thrive. 

Your nervous system, much like your personal comfort with temperature, has a sweet spot. Stray too far, and you experience stress. Yet, in small increments, mild stress, a concept known as hormesis, is a powerful tool for health. It’s the principle behind strength training, and it’s the very reason why the seemingly intense act of sitting in an infrared sauna can be one of the most effective ways to train your nervous system to bounce back more easily and stay balanced. 

To understand how this works, let’s look at your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). Think of your ANS as the movie producer for your body’s internal show. Without any conscious effort from you, it directs the rhythm of your breath, heartbeat, digestion, and immune response. It’s constantly listening to internal and external cues, coordinating all of the systems that keep you in a state of healthy balance. This producer works through two channels: the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic nervous systems. 

Sympathetic Nervous System (“fight or flight” activation):

Your cat knocked over a glass vase again, and just like that, your body surges into sympathetic activation, keeping you on high alert. There is an immediate perceived threat and the nervous system takes action to protect. The body becomes flooded with energy-filled hormones, such as epinephrine (also known as adrenaline). The release of epinephrine makes your heart beat faster, breath become more shallow, and digestion be put on halt. 

Parasympathetic Nervous System (“rest and digest” activation):

In parasympathetic activation, the body relaxes into restoration mode. Let’s say you just arrived at the beach for your vacation. The gentle sea breeze combined with the smell of ocean water signals to your nervous system that it’s time to relax. Your heart rate slows down, digestion starts back up, and immune responses are in action. 

These two systems are in constant flux, surveying the environment within and around you to determine what you need: alertness for a challenge, or recovery. 

The problem in our modern world is that chronic stress can prevent this natural return to calm. While your body is designed to recover from a stressor in 20-40 minutes, constant demands can keep your nervous system in a dominant state of ‘flight or fight’. This leads to anxiety, poor recovery, and, as we’ll see, a lowered Heart Rate Variability (HRV). 

This leads to the question: Can the therapeutic heat of an infrared sauna be a tool to soothe a stressed-out nervous system? 

Beyond Sweat: Understanding Infrared Technology 

You may be familiar with a traditional sauna, where coal is machine-heated to swell the temperature in the wooden room. The heated air around you causes your body to sweat and reap the benefits of a sauna. 

Infrared saunas, however, use light panels to produce heat, creating a feeling similar to the sun hitting your skin on a summer day. The light panels themselves emit electromagnetic radiation, a form of heat, that penetrates deeper into the skin compared to a traditional sauna, thanks to infrared energy having longer wavelengths. As the light panel energy goes into the muscles and deep tissue, the body undergoes thermoregulation, where it detoxes and gets back to a baseline temperature through releasing heat through more sweating. Circulation improves because the vessels are dilated, and the body is able to restore. 

While traditional saunas range in temperature from 150°F-195°F, infrared saunas stay a bit cooler, typically operating around 120°F-140°F. This results in a more comfortable and accessible experience, often even more effective at promoting a deep, purifying sweat due to the direct way infrared energy heats your body. 

The Science of Heat: A Hormetic Stressor for Stability

Have you ever been lying down in bed and had a sudden urge to check if the door is unlocked, only to discover that the door was unlocked? Shimmers of mild stress build your body’s capability to adequately respond to challenging situations, a concept known as hormetic stress.

The same principle applies to the controlled, incremental stress of heat exposure in an infrared sauna session. Even though it's hot in the sauna, your body is building the stamina it needs to become more resilient and adaptable over time. 

The Acute Response: What Happens During a Session? 

In an infrared sauna session, typically lasting 15-30 minutes, your sweat glands activate causing you to sweat and detoxify. During this, your body undergoes a temporary, acute sympathetic response. Your heart rate speeds up, and you become aware of your body working, which is a sign of the beneficial stress it's adapting to. 

As the body adjusts, it releases helpful stress molecules known as Heat Shock Proteins (HSP). The main function of HSPs is to repair cellular function by maintaining protein structure. Simultaneously, the body also releases endorphins, giving you a boost of well-being by naturally elevating your mood. 

The Rebound Effect: The Critical Point After the Sauna 

Once you exit the sauna, your body rapidly shifts into a state of recovery and relaxation. This is where the transformation lies.

The seemingly chilled air makes contact with your skin, signaling thermal receptors in the vagus nerve, a crucial part of the parasympathetic nervous system, to enter the cool down process. The rest and digest nervous system response becomes activated, lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and promoting immune response. 

Chronic Adaptation: Long-term Benefits for Nervous System Balance 

Improved Baseline HRV: 

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is an important measure of your nervous system’s flexibility. It’s the subtle variation in time between each heartbeat.

A high HRV means your heart can easily adapt to demands. The adjustment from rushing to pick your daughter up from dance to enjoying the flow of making dinner, shows resilience in your ability to move with experiences. Conversely, a low HRV, often seen in chronic stress, indicates a nervous system that’s stuck on high alert. 

A single session in an infrared sauna may not improve heart rate variability instantly, but overtime with consistency, studies show that the heart gains strength, improving baseline heart rate variability. Implementing a hormetic stressor, like an infrared sauna, trains the body to build the internal leverage it needs to thrive in a variety of situations. 

Reduced Inflammation: 

Chronic inflammation is a hidden culprit behind many modern health issues. Excitingly, research points to infrared saunas as a powerful resource to help restore health. 

A study from a Taiwanese medical college shows the positive impact of infrared saunas on inflammation response. Participants experienced a significant reduction in pro-inflammatory cytokines, specifically IL-6 and TNF-a, after infrared sauna use. This means that the immune system decreases the activity of immunity proteins that increase inflammation. 

The heat improves circulation, which helps to flush out waste. Simultaneously, it also stimulates the body’s natural anti-inflammatory pathways. This process optimizes the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to your tissues, giving your body what it needs to repair and restore itself. 

Enhanced Sleep Quality: 

It’s easier to drift off into sleep when the body is relaxed. Infrared saunas actively support this approach by enhancing your body’s natural wind-down rhythm.

A key part of this is thermoregulation, a process of your core body temperature dropping. Infrared saunas help thermoregulation in the hours after your session, when your body starts to cool itself down, mimicking and amplifying this essential pre-sleep temperature drop. The body also enters a parasympathetic state, signaling to your brain that it's time for rest and recovery, making your night’s sleep more feasible and rejuvenating. 

Infrared Sauna vs. Other Wellness Practices: 

Compared to Exercise: 

While exercise remains a beneficial method for improving autonomic nervous system function, the positive effects of infrared sauna therapy compliment exercising through allowing the body to recover more efficiently. Achy muscles from long heavy lifting workouts would melt in the presence of heat exposure because they have the chance to relax and solidify their previous efforts. 

Compared to Cold Plunge: 

In two extreme temperatures, cold and hot therapies both provide different but similar benefits. Dipping yourself into ice cold baths help activate the nervous system for alertness, while immersing yourself into the warmth of a sauna promotes deep relaxation. Both have an impact that guides our nervous system to regulation. 

Protocol for Regulation: How to Use Sauna for Nervous System Health

Researchers suggest that 2-4 sessions per week are just enough to stimulate physiological changes. The time frame for usage ranges from 20-45 minutes, varying temperatures between 105°F-140°F. 

If you’re new to sauna use, it’s recommended to start at the lower end of the temperature range (around 105°F) for shorter sessions (15-20 minutes). This allows your body to acclimate to the intense change of temperatures, though if you’re used to tropical heat, you might be a step ahead. 

Important Considerations for Safety: 

Proper hydration is essential. Drinking water before, during, and after your session supports your body’s natural cooling processes, and prevents dehydration and dizziness. Additionally, it is crucial to consult with your doctor before use if you have conditions such as low blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, or are pregnant. 

From Stress to Strength

Each session in an infrared sauna is an opportunity for your body’s capability to extend past limits once placed. From acute stress management to long term adaptation, this practice helps build the processes for a calmer, more regulated you. Instead of sweat being something that's dreaded, it looks like strength, and feels like relief.