A global study surveying over 400 sauna users found that 83% reported a positive effect on their quality of sleep. Sauna bathing can impact several hormones and neurotransmitters such as adenosine levels, and sleep-regulating cytokines, that play essential roles in sleep quality.

Saunas interact with your body’s thermoregulation, which also plays a role in sleep. You naturally cool down in the evening as you snooze, and this dip in temperature is one of the things that signals to your body it’s time to produce more melatonin. By raising your body temperature in a sauna and then using cold water therapy to quickly drop it, you can trick yourself into producing melatonin. (You can also try this trick at home with a hot bath before bed – following sleep hygiene of course!)

The hot air and moisture of a sauna enhance collagen production to help rejuvenate your skin's elasticity and complexion. The heat increase also allows your skin to shed dead skin cells and make way for new, healthier ones. Sweating cleanses the skin, flushing out all the bad stuff in pores and increasing blood circulation to nourish your skin. You’ll find that your skin feels and looks healthier and is less prone to acne, blackheads, and other pesky blemishes.

Check out our blog on all the ways Hot-Cold-Relax improves skin health.

Dr. Christine Krall, Naturopathic Doctor (ND) is an advocate for contrast therapy. “Naturopathic doctors like contrast therapy because the alternating vasodilation and vasoconstriction gives the vessels a workout,” she says. As the body’s most vital organ, it’s important to keep our cardiovascular system strong and healthy – and saunas can help. A sauna session, followed by a bath alone can reduce total vascular resistance (involved in hypertension) for up to 120 minutes. A Finnish study assessed 1,628 adults over the course of 15 years, discovering that saunas reduced the risk of strokes. The authors also performed another study that showed that the more often middle-aged male participants visited the sauna, the lower their risk of fatal episodes of coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease.

There are two types of fat cells in your body and cold exposure reworks their distribution. White fat is storage, while brown fat is metabolic. Cold plunge encourages stem cells to form brown fat (resulting in a third, temporary kind of fat: beige fat) which will increase your resting metabolic rate and improve your metabolic health.

There’s a caveat though: metabolism and weight loss often get conflated, which can be harmful to our understanding of wellbeing and relationships to our bodies. Metabolism refers to all the chemical processes going on continuously inside your body that allow life and normal functioning. Weight is a highly individualized aspect of health and we aim to respect it as such.

When you’re in the sauna, your body prevents your core from overheating by directing more blood to your limbs. As blood flow increases, it drives oxygen deeper into stressed muscle and joint tissue, hastening their healing process. This works both preventively and therapeutically. That’s among many reasons why athletes love saunas.

Cold therapy is amazing for pain too. As cold water restricts blood vessels and lowers muscle tissue temperature, it’s been shown to help combat inflammation. When blood flow is localized, less swelling in damaged areas happens — which is why we put ice on injuries. Less inflammation also means you’re less likely to have delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after a workout or other physical activity, making it a proactive form of care, too.

Cold therapy constricts blood and lymphatic vessels, and shunts blood back to your core to maintain its temperature. This drives oxygenated blood to your internal organs and pumps lymph fluid through nodes, flushing out waste and triggering white blood cells to destroy foreign bodies – boosting your immunity naturally.

Cold exposure can help autoimmune issues, too. As the body redirects energy to prioritize metabolization to maintain body heat, the activity of harmful immune cells decreases. So good white blood cells thrive, and bad ones reduce.

Sauna use helps strengthen your immune system and make your body more resilient by generating small amounts of oxidative stress, increasing your cells’ antioxidant capacity, in turn reducing your risk of getting sick. Think of it like immunity strength training.

You’ll know it as soon as you try it and the dopamine hits you: cold therapy works! Cold water immersion activates electrical nerve impulses that mimic those triggered by antidepressants: in one study, a 24 year old woman with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder was completely symptom-and-medication-free after mere months of weekly cold open water swims.

Randomized trials show it’s the same with saunas too. Regular sauna use has been associated with improved mental well-being and sleep, quick acting antidepressant effects, and can even reduce the risk of psychosis.

If you’re struggling, a Hot-Cold-Relax treat on the regular just might be the one-two punch you need to complement your ongoing treatment.