I Have Anxiety and Sleep Issues—This Infrared Sauna Practically Cured Me

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Ever since I can remember, I've struggled with feeling "calm." My pediatrician recommended melatonin for my sleepless nights before I was old enough to drive. I've tried circular breathing to slow a spiking heart rate. I do yoga and run to quiet my thoughts. No matter what I do, though, my baseline anxiety is always lingering somewhere around a four—just enough to be noticeable—a number I can stomach living with. 

Enter infrared saunas. When I first started reading about infrared saunas, they sounded too good to be true. Was it possible that a sauna might be the golden ticket to having less anxiety, soothing pain and sore muscles, and getting a full eight hours of sleep? I knew I had to try it out for myself, even just to cross it off the list of things I'd tried to quell my thoughts. 

I decided to turn to HigherDose, a company built around high-tech wellness tools designed to make you feel better. HigherDose has been touting the benefits of infrared saunas ever since its founding in 2016. The company began when co-founder Lauren Berlingeri tried an infrared sauna for the first time. "I tried it and was blown away by the immediate benefits," says Berlingeri. "Being in the wellness space, most things take three to six months to really start to see somewhat of a difference. To see and feel such a transformation in one session, I was like, 'How does everyone in New York not know about this, and how was everyone not doing this?'" From there, HigherDose was born with her co-founder Katie Kaps. 

HigherDose seemed like the perfect place to start on my infrared-sauna journey, particularly because it also makes a very interesting piece of wellness tech: the sauna blanket. I figured if I found infrared saunas completely life-changing I could buy a sauna blanket, making infrared heat available to me in the comfort of my own home. 

I booked an appointment at HigherDose with a healthy dose of skepticism. To get the full HigherDose effect, I also had a lymphatic drainage massage. Berlingeri explains that lymphatic drainage massages and infrared saunas are a natural match—lymphatic drainage massages stimulate your lymph system to help your body drain fluids, and infrared saunas rev up blood flow and circulation while releasing toxins through sweat. 

When I arrived at my appointment, there was a large Mountain Valley water (of Gwyneth Paltrow fame) and two Chill Chews, HigherDose's stress-easing gummies, waiting for me. After taking two of the gummies and a swig of water, I slipped onto the massage table for my lymphatic drainage massage. The massage therapist kneaded and prodded my body in a downward motion to promote drainage and then sprayed my body down with the brand's Get Salty Spray. The Get Salty Spray is a magnesium spray designed to replenish electrolytes and is the perfect supplement to a sweat sesh. She wrapped me up to keep the spray close to my skin, and I headed to the sauna, water in hand (which was newly dosed with Detox Drops, a chlorophyll solution).

The sauna itself was a wooden booth lit up with red lights. I spent 30 minutes in it, and at first, I worried it wasn't hot enough because I didn't start sweating immediately. After about 10 minutes, however, I started—apologies for this—absolutely pouring sweat. It was more than I was used to sweating at a typical hot yoga session, which makes sense after learning about how infrared saunas work.

Unlike traditional saunas, infrared saunas actually heat your body from the inside. "Normal saunas use flames or steam to generate heat in a small area," says Sara Hogan, MD. "Infrared saunas utilize lamps that emit electromagnetic radiation that penetrate the skin and warm the body directly. Infrared saunas are therefore able to exert effects on the human body like increased heart rate and increased sweating at lower temperatures than those of regular saunas." Regular saunas may get up to 150° Fahrenheit, while infrared saunas just get up to anywhere between 110° and 130°. 

This is crucial to the way an infrared sauna works. "[It] actually detoxes about seven times more than traditional saunas. And it's a very oily kind of sweat—a very different sweat than you would experience with a traditional [sauna] because you are pulling out of the fat cells, which is amazing on top of the cardiovascular benefits and burning calories," says Berlingeri. Considering my experience, this tracks. 

The act of sitting in the sauna itself felt rejuvenating, but it wasn't until after I left that the real benefits started kicking in. On my way home, my mind felt truly blank. I imagine this is what people who meditate feel like on a daily basis, but as an impatient, jittery person, I know I'll never know what that actually feels like, so my post-sauna high will serve as the closest thing to meditative zen.

I went in the morning, and I spent the rest of the day totally blissed out—everything at work that might have normally been a fire drill suddenly felt like a minor issue that was easily solvable. I didn't have a pit in my stomach, which is just a baseline for me. I was in a good mood all day long. It truly felt like someone had put a weighted blanket on my brain. 

I asked the pros whether or not infrared saunas are actually good for you, and the answer seems to be a resounding yes. "There are numerous studies that demonstrate the health benefits of infrared saunas," says Hogan. "These include lower blood pressure, improved heart health, better sleep, less joint pain, faster post-exercise muscle recovery, even decreased risk of catching the common cold." She notes that most studies have fairly small sample sizes, so more data is needed before making broad conclusions on anything. 

And keep in mind, of course, that an infrared sauna isn't for anyone. Everyone I spoke with emphasized you should avoid them if you're pregnant. There are a few other reasons to avoid an infrared sauna, however. "Infrared radiation and heat may make conditions like melasma and rosacea worse," says Joshua Zeichner, MD. "I do not recommend them for those patients." You may also want to avoid them if you're easily overheated or dehydrated. 

After having such a positive experience at the HigherDose location, I knew I had to try the sauna blanket to see if I could replicate the effects at home. After a long day of traveling, I came home and plugged in the sauna blanket.

The nice thing about it is you can control how much heat you get with the settings. (It reminds me of a heating pad.) Once you're in the blanket, it's kind of like being in a sleeping bag, and it slowly warms up. At first, I was worried I wasn't going to get the same sweat benefits, but I started sweating as I would in a normal sauna within 15 minutes. Afterward, I felt just as relaxed as I had during my visit to the HigherDose facilities, so I'm pretty sure I just found a new life hack for sounder sleep and less anxiety. Therapy dupe?!

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