What to wear in an infrared sauna

Many people are not sure what to wear in an infrared sauna.

Let’s stop for a minute and look at how an infrared sauna actually works to find out how to get the most out of your session in the infrared sauna. Besides being extremely relaxing, the infrared heat also brings you a lot of therapeutic benefits and if you’re interested in enjoying these at full, well, you’re simply going to have to wear the right things in your infrared sauna.

Unlike many things that impact modern life, the question of what to wear in an infrared sauna is actually easy to answer. Basically, you should wear as little as you can while you're in an infrared sauna. In fact, ideally you should wear absolutely nothing. Of course, this is pretty easy to do if you're at home and you're going to use your own infrared sauna. You just need to strip down and step in. In addition to its other benefits, the experience of being nude while sitting in an infrared sauna, feeling the warm heat radiating into your skin and body, can be quite liberating.

Depending ow where you go or your level of comfort while being nude in the company of others, you may need to do things differently, however. When the infrared sauna you're about to use is at a day spa, a health clinic or even at a friend's house, taking your clothes off in public may be out of your comfort zone. If you're in that situation and you must wear clothing inside the sauna, make sure you select loose-fitting clothes that are made of breathable fabrics. A pair of cotton shorts and a tank top or an oversized cotton t-shirt would be a good choice for what to wear in an infrared sauna. Or, if you prefer, you could wear a swimsuit.

Several articles on my site have mentioned the way infrared heat can penetrate deeply into the tissues of your body, and how that deep penetration is responsible for the therapeutic benefits of infrared saunas. Based on that information, you might have assumed that infrared heat can also penetrate through layers of clothing. Well, suffice it to say that wearing minimal or even no clothing in an infrared sauna gives much better results. Although infrared heat is able to penetrate fabric to a limited degree, it will be hindered by whatever you're wearing. In other words, layers of clothing will prevent you from receiving the infrared's full effects.

A visual image on what to wear in an infrared sauna

A visual image might help you understand the way this works a little better. Picture a wooden sun lounger sitting on a concrete deck near a swimming pool. Bright sunlight is bathing the entire area, including the sun lounger and the deck. Naturally, the wooden sun lounger is casting a deep shadow on the deck. But even if the sun lounger was made with a translucent fabric instead of wood, it would still cast a shadow on the deck. The shadow might not be as deep as the shadow cast by the wooden lounger, but it would still be there. Even the translucent fabric partially blocks the sunlight.

Wearing clothing in an infrared sauna works the same way as the translucent fabric of our hypothetical sun lounger. It hinders the radiant heat produced by an infrared sauna, although it does not block it altogether. That's why you should avoid wearing layers of clothing while you're in an infrared sauna. The fewer clothes you wear while you're inside, the more benefit you'll receive from the sauna's radiant energy.

In addition to knowing what to wear in an infrared sauna, you'll want to remember to take clean towels into the sauna's cabin with you. If you'll be luxuriating in the sauna while you're in the nude, bring at least two towels inside. You'll want one to sit on and another one to wipe away your perspiration. Even if you wear clothing in an infrared sauna, you'll still need at least one towel to wipe off the sweat.

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