A peaceful night’s rest is a crucial component for anyone who has health and wellness in mind. In fact, we spend a third of our lives asleep – and without enough sleep, we reduce our body’s ability to stay productive or even stay healthy. In this article, join Sun Stream Saunas in discussing the advantages of infrared sauna.
If you’re not getting enough sleep due to a medical condition, sleep debt, or a broken circadian clock, infrared saunas can help reduce that brain fog and grogginess you feel each time you wake by enhancing your sleep quality.
How important is sleep?
As we all know, sleep is a basic human need vital for maintaining various aspects of our bodily functions, such as our physical, cognitive, and emotional health.
Sleep is a way for our body to take a break, rest and repair themselves. Getting enough sleep is vital for our body to catch up and fully function the next day.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults need an average of 7-9 hours of sleep every night, however, around a third of Australians are thought to be sleep-deprived.
Side effects of poor sleep quality
What happens when you don’t get the right dose of sleep every night?
According to the Better Health Channel, poor sleep can produce short-term and long-term health outcomes that significantly impair our personal, work, school, and social functions.
Here are some tell-tale signs that you’re not getting the right amount of sleep:
- Feeling fatigued in the morning that lasts throughout the day, indicated by frequent yawning
- Having difficulty concentrating
- Impaired cognitive function (insufficient memory consolidation, lack of neurotransmitter sensitivity for rational decision making)
- Craving caffeine
- Falling asleep unconsciously and/or taking naps during the day
- Mood swings, low motivation, and increased irritability
Do infrared saunas influence your sleep quality?
When it comes to the efficacy of infrared saunas when it comes to improving your sleep quality, there’s a global consensus that backs up that claim. According to a 2019 global sauna survey with 482 valid responses from October 2016 to October 2017, 83.5% of the responses reported sleep benefits after sauna use.
Here’s how infrared saunas help achieve that:
Deeper relaxation
Infrared saunas provide one of the best sources of quality relaxation, which can affect how fast you fall asleep.
Heat therapy can help relax muscles and relieve tensions present throughout your body as well as balance your body’s cortisol levels – your stress hormone.
Moreover, as your core body temperature drops after stepping out of the sauna, you will naturally get sleepier due to increased melatonin production.
Increased melatonin production
Using an infrared sauna subjects your body to heat therapy, which in turn stimulates melatonin production – the body’s ‘sleep hormone’ as your body cools down from the heat.
Melatonin is an important hormone that directly governs our sleep-wake cycle, acting as the ‘signal’ that informs our body to sleep.
Spending time in a sauna is like soaking in a warm bath before bed – the heat allows your blood vessels to ‘vasodilate’, allowing your body to lose heat and triggering your circadian rhythm to tell your body to go to sleep.
When combined with the added benefits of muscle relaxation, this results in you falling asleep faster (about nine minutes) than usual.
Moreover, subsequent infrared sauna sessions also result in higher melatonin levels, which in turn leads to deeper, restorative sleep.
Infrared saunas can also function as a safe space – where your brain can relax, free from outside distractions and enter a form of meditative state.
Getting a better night’s rest with Sun Stream Saunas
Infrared saunas have numerous benefits such as better heart health and detoxification, but their advantages also extend to enhancing sleep quality.
Some additional steps you could take are to get a comfortable mattress to sleep in and avoid any phones, TV screens, or laptops in the hours leading up to bedtime.
Our sauna models in particular have industry-leading ultra-low EMF & ELF heather technology so any disturbance to your biochemical responses is kept to a minimum while inside the sauna.
If you’re interested in taking home an infrared sauna model that’s tailored to your needs and preferences, don’t hesitate to contact us and let us help you choose.