Infrared sauna blankets are a hot topic across the country with promises of multiple health benefits.
These promises include improved mood, sleep, and skin. Could this be true? We’ve also heard how these sauna blankets are associated with weight loss but do infrared sauna blankets work for weight loss?
Celebrities have sworn by these sauna blankets, and there have been glowing reviews about this must-buy product.
So, are there actually infrared sauna blanket health benefits?
In this article, we’ll go through the health benefits and how these infrared sauna blankets can help achieve these.
What Is An Infrared Sauna Blanket?
You may be asking yourself, what exactly does an infrared blanket do? An infrared sauna blanket is similar to an infrared sauna.
An infrared sauna works by using infrared radiation to heat your body directly instead of heating the air around you like a traditional sauna.
The temperature and humidity are lower than in a traditional sauna. The conditions cause your body to sweat, resulting in the same benefits as a sauna but with a less extreme environment.
A sauna blanket is the same but you don’t have to have a dedicated room to use it. To use the blanket, wrap it around yourself, turn it on, and sit with it on while sweating.
If you’d like to know about more conventional saunas before jumping straight into an infrared blanket, Temperature Sensei has a wealth of information on the subject.
What Are The Health Benefits?
There’s no doubt that an infrared sauna blanket will make you sweat. After all, that’s one of its main purposes. However, infrared radiation doesn’t feel quite as hot as the heat from a traditional sauna.
Seeing as the temperature range is lower than a traditional sauna (120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit in the blanket compared to 150 to 180 in a regular sauna), the infrared waves penetrate more deeply than warmed air. This leaves you with a higher core body temperature.
Instead of leaving the sauna quickly because of the unbearable heat, you’re able to stay in the blanket for longer and reap more benefits.
Some evidence has shown that infrared saunas can improve sleep, improve your mood, reduce stress, improve the appearance of your skin, boost cardiovascular function and blood circulation, and help certain types of medical conditions such as high blood pressure. It also suggests that the infrared sauna can help reduce body aches and aid muscle recovery. RELATED: Infrared saunas
Beauty improvements and muscle recovery are two of the largest benefits. Infrared heat may help to reduce puffiness and swelling and give your skin an overall glow, while the heat is highly beneficial to relaxing sore muscles.
Regardless of its many different benefits, infrared sauna blankets will always make you feel good, whether on the inside or the outside.
Cortisol is the body’s primary stress hormone. The heat of the blanket helps your body regulate the amount of cortisol in your blood.
When cortisol is reduced, serotonin is released, which lowers your overall stress level. Likewise, the increased endorphin levels lead to a more relaxed, deeper sleep.
Endorphins are released when visiting a sauna mainly because it’s perceived as an indulgent and relaxing self-pampering routine.
If you use your sauna blanket as part of a pleasing self-pampering routine, this can help to boost your mood and make you feel happier.
Traditional saunas are known for being a place of relaxation, whether it’s the mindset of having some “me” time, the social aspect of conversing with others in the sauna, or the feeling of toxins leaving your body and your skin feeling like it’s being taken care of.
Infrared sauna blankets may not have all the same effects and qualities as a traditional sauna; however, they can become a part of your daily de-stressing routine.
When you allocate a specific time of day to yourself and what makes you feel good, this can reduce stress.
Taking the time to create a calming environment while you use your sauna blanket, perhaps with some scented candles and relaxing music in a quiet area, can drastically reduce your stress levels.
An infrared sauna can indeed improve the complexion of your skin.
An infrared sauna blanket can help reduce lines, wrinkles, and pigmentation. This is because a sauna blanket causes sweating, and when you sweat, dirt and toxins are released out of your skin through sweat.
Sweating is beneficial as your body gets rid of dirt, oil, and other impure matter that deposits on your skin.
Infrared saunas fall into the category of “low-level light therapy.” They are used by dermatologists to treat acne, psoriasis, and eczema.
The heat from the blanket causes your heart rate to rise. As your heart rate rises, your blood vessels dilate, and you sweat more, improving blood circulation.
Regular heart rate leads to better cardiovascular health and helps lower your blood pressure.
When you first start using a sauna, your blood pressure increases. However, if you use a sauna regularly, you will find that your blood pressure drops.
Although the research was done on regular saunas, infrared sauna blankets are believed to have similar effects.
Nowadays, all different types of sportsmen and women use saunas as a recovery method after training or competitions.
A hot sauna warms and relaxes fatigued muscles and allows them to recover more quickly.
Infrared radiation penetrates your body and muscles, and therefore an infrared sauna or a sauna blanket will have the same effects.
Other Infrared Sauna Blanket Benefits
Apart from the health benefits that sauna blankets may offer, a few other benefits relate specifically to blankets.
Cost
A benefit that sauna blankets have is the cost.
You may not find the top-end sauna blankets to be so cheap, but when you compare the cost of the blanket with the cost of a sauna treatment in a spa, a blanket works out much cheaper, especially if you’d like to use it more than once a week.
Infrared spa treatments are particularly expensive.
Compared to a traditional sauna in your home a sauna blanket, is also much less expensive. By purchasing an infrared sauna blanket, you can enjoy all the benefits of a sauna in the comfort of your own home.
Convenience
If you have purchased a sauna blanket, you can use it whenever you like.
You don’t have to leave your house to go to the spa or the gym because you will have 24/7 access to your own personal sauna at home.
This is especially helpful for feeling relaxed after your sauna session as you don’t have to journey back home afterward.
Infrared sauna blankets are also convenient to travel with as they are compact and lightweight, making them easy to take with you. This can also save you money as you don’t need to spend money on booking a sauna treatment at your holiday destination.
If you’re traveling for sport, you can easily take your sauna blanket and use it to aid recovery in the hotel after your sporting event.
How To Set Up And Use An Infrared Sauna Blanket
It’s quite easy to set up an infrared sauna blanket.
Firstly, remove it from its bag, then unfold it onto a surface that is heat resistant such as your bed or a couch. Next, attach the controller pad, plug in the device, and it’ll be ready to use.
We don’t recommend removing all of your clothing before getting into your sauna blanket. Rather wear a pair of long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a pair of socks. Once fully clothed, step into the blanket, and turn it on.
You’ll need to stay hydrated as sweating will dehydrate you. Make sure to keep a bottle of water next to you.
If you wear clothes in the sauna blanket, it will make cleaning up afterward a lot easier. The fabric will absorb the sweat and will protect your skin.
You can use the blanket every day, but you can still fully reap the benefits if you use it 2 to 3 times per week.
Benefits That Are Myths
Infrared Sauna Blankets Detox Your Body
Harmful toxins can indeed be excreted in sweat. However, this happens when you simply just sweat more without burning fat, and this does not mean that your body is detoxing.
The organs that detoxify our system are the kidneys and the liver. Because they function, there’s no need for sweat to play a part in detoxifying our bodies.
So, sweat does not detoxify our bodies because the kidneys do it for us. The main role of sweat is to keep us cool.
Helps Fight Cancer
Some advertisements may promote the infrared sauna blanket by stating that it may help fight cancer by bettering your immune system, removing carcinogenic chemicals from the body, and even directly killing cancer cells.
There is, however, no evidence to support any of these claims.
Helps With Weight Loss
The claim that infrared sauna blankets can help with weight loss is sadly untrue.
This idea probably stems from the fact that when you weigh yourself after you’ve sat in a sauna, you may find that the scale shows you have lost some weight.
This weight, however, is only the water weight that you have lost through sweating, which doesn’t count as losing weight. It only means that you have lost water.
Saunas also do not, contrary to popular belief, speed up your metabolism. This theory is false.
Saunas make you sweat and speed up your heart rate. This can be seen as the same as when you exercise.
However, sweating and increased heart rate alone do not burn fat. Only exercise will do that for you.
What To Expect While Using An Infrared Sauna Blanket
Once you have set up and plugged in the device, you’ll gradually start to feel the blanket getting warmer.
Choose a temperature that’s not too high to start with, and once this temperature has been reached, you can simply lie back and relax for the remainder of the time.
The heat shouldn’t feel uncomfortable or extremely hot. Assuming your temperature is set low.
We suggest starting with 120 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes a session. This can be increased after a few uses.
These devices are usually designed to be easy to get in and out of so that you don’t feel trapped. You can sit and relax, and even watch tv while you are in it.
Infrared Sauna Blanket Aftercare
After using the blanket, it is important to stay hydrated.
Wash your body in a cold shower to remove any toxins that were excreted. You should also try to sleep as your sleep will be improved, and this will lead to an even better mood.
Cleaning the blanket is easy. Open the velcro along the sides, open up the blanket, then spray it down with a natural disinfectant. You can leave it to dry or wipe it away with a paper towel.
It would help if you waited until the blanket had cooled before packing it away and storing it to avoid any damage to the technology.
Should You Buy An Infrared Sauna Blanket?
An infrared sauna blanket is all about heat and rising temperatures. If this sounds unpleasant to you, then this may not be worth the purchase.
However, if you’re open to trying new gadgets and love the relaxation of sauna treatments, then this is for you.
Infrared sauna blankets that are labeled with a low electromagnetic field (EMF) rating are said to be better for you due to higher EMFs causing cell damage. However, there is little research to back this up.
If you’ve been contemplating installing an infrared sauna in your home or if you’ve been going to the gym or booking spa appointments just to indulge in the relaxation of a sauna, then purchasing a sauna blanket may just be the perfect option for you.
Pros And Cons Of Infrared Sauna Blankets
You may need to weigh out the pros and cons before making a decision.
Pros | Cons |
The pros have been mentioned above and include everything from glowing skin. | The cons may include any potential side effects. |
Reduced stress to muscle | Side effects may include migraines, vertigo, or dizziness. Additionally, if you suffer from a heart condition, high blood pressure, or are taking blood pressure medication or diuretics, it may be best to consult with a doctor before using a sauna blanket. |
Final Takeaway
Instead of sitting in a traditional sauna where you may not be too comfortable due to other people sitting in it, an infrared sauna blanket provides you with a similar experience in the comfort of your own home.
Not only is it less costly than an infrared sauna treatment, but it is convenient and can become a part of your weekly pampering routine.
The above-mentioned benefits show how sauna blankets are just as good as traditional or sit-in infrared saunas.
An infrared sauna blanket will relieve your stress, create glowing skin, lower your blood pressure, help your muscles recover, and much more.
Although they may not help you lose weight or prevent cancer, they do help in many other ways. So if you’re looking for something to boost your mood and give you a good night’s sleep, then this may just be the perfect product for you.
With all this information that we’ve provided, you can now decide if purchasing a sauna blanket is the right decision for you.