The Sauna Rules

So you’re sold on the benefits of regular sauna use and have one available you can use. Good for you! For most of us, that means using a public sauna, often one hosted by our gym.

Like any activity taking place in a shared space, etiquette is important to understand (and hopefully respect and observe). Etiquette is the means by which activities that take place in shared spaces, especially those shared between strangers, benefit everyone… with the least possible friction or nuisance and the best value for everyone.

As it turns out, in the case of sauna use, most of the rules of etiquette directly impact how beneficial (or not) sauna usage is for you—as much as for those around you.

As it turns out, in the case of sauna use, most of the rules of etiquette directly impact how beneficial (or not) sauna usage is for you.

With that in mind, these are rules specific to sauna usage everyone should uphold:

The Rules:

1. No personal hygiene activities!
2. No sniffling. No coughing. No sneezing.
3. No sighing. No grunting. No snoring. No yawning. (No snorting. No gargling. No spitting. No drooling. No hawking loogies!)
4. No music! No cellphones.
5. No ins and outs!
6. Maximum time per visit: 20 minutes.
7. Maximum visits per day: 2.
8. No exercising!

How Come?

I hope most people read that list and simply agreed.

Was that you? You can stop right here. For anyone else who doesn’t get it, however, here’s the run-down for each item in the Sauna Rules:

No personal hygiene activities!

1. No shaving.
2. No flossing or brushing teeth.
3. No nail clipping.
4. No scraping or rubbing any part of your body.
5. No applying lotions, oils, or scents.

Personal hygiene has a time and place and it’s simply unhygienic to perform any in shared spaces with strangers. Especially in tight, constrained spaces with little air flow or lighting.

It’s also gross.

If this rule is not utterly self-evident, you really should not be in shared spaces with others. At all. (And you probably require some type of therapy or counseling). Sorry, not sorry.

No sniffling.
No coughing.
No sneezing.

If you have to do any of these, leave immediately and do not return for at least 24 hours.

Like the hygiene rule above, if you don’t just understand this intuitively, you have a social problem. It’s gross and offensive.

You’re only weakening your immune system1 and making yourself sicker as well as spreading disease to others.

Don’t be a Typhoid Mary.

No sighing. No grunting. No snoring. No yawning.
No snorting. No gargling. No spitting. No drooling.
No hawking loogies.

Not all of these acts are inherently unhygienic. But many still are, and most of them, when done in constrained personal spaces among others, are downright sociopathic.

Regardless, all such bodily noises are extremely disruptive to the peace of others using the sauna. And if you are not at peace in the sauna, you are not obtaining its benefits and less likely to want to keep returning.

Peace in the sauna is an imperative aspect of its value to all who visit. Including you.

Plus, doing any of these implies you are not in the right headspace or health-space to be using the sauna. Either you’re bored, tired, or dealing with emotional issues. Try taking slow, deep breaths instead, inhaling with your nose, exhaling with your mouth. Do so quietly and gently, in a manner no louder than normal breathing. You will stimulate your relaxation response, lowering your heart rate and initiating destress. As the heat of a sauna elevates your heart rate and adds more (but different) stress, calming your psychology and emotional stress while allowing your body to experience this external stress maximizes the benefit.

Peace in the sauna is an imperative aspect of its value to all who visit. Including you.

No music!
No cellphones. No devices.

Not even over headphones. The rest of us CAN hear it. When you’re in a sauna, it’s a near-silent and close up space. Everyone is in everyone else’s personal space. With that in mind, even music at a moderate to low level on headphones can be heard by others. Anything with even a little percussion or high tones will leak out and color someone else’s experience. Even if they were into the same music, it’s not the same when you hear the tinny snips and pieces through the air from someone else’s headset.

Even if they were into the same music, it’s unlikely they want to hear in the sauna or can actually benefit from it. Even if you enjoy specific tracks in a way allowing you to feel relaxed listening to them when baking in a sauna, someone else who also happens to enjoy those same tracks isn’t likely to have the same reaction. Let alone someone who isn’t into that music, or someone who feels situational about it.

And consider the possibility that not even you are getting the real benefit of quiet reflection in a sauna if you’re dominated by an itch to distract yourself by listening to something.

If none of that is enough to sway you, keep in mind that aside from disrupting someone else’s sauna experience and your own, the intense heat of a sauna is extremely bad for personal electronics. Your phone’s and headset’s battery life will tank and never recover.

The intense heat of a sauna is extremely bad for personal electronics. Your phone’s and headset’s battery life will tank and never recover.

No ins and outs!

Once you leave, do not re-enter for at least 4 hours. You have lost the benefit and purpose if you cool off. So cool all the way off, do other stuff, and you can try again later. When you go in and out, all you’re doing is making the sauna colder and less effective (for everyone else as well as yourself).

If you already stayed for the longest time you could withstand, you’re done. Try again tomorrow and add one minute.

If you didn’t stay for the longest time you can withstand (up to 20 minutes, max), you’re not doing it right. Try again tomorrow.

Ins and outs spoil it for everyone… including you.

Maximum time per visit: 20 minutes

This is for your own well-being. People die from heat exhaustion. Even in saunas.

The hotter the sauna, the lower this time limit will be. Possibly as short as 10 minutes. Most healthy persons should expect 15—maybe 20 minutes—maximum, inside a decently hot sauna.

If the sauna is not hot enough, meaning you could easily stay in it longer than 20 minutes, don’t waste your time using it.

Maximum visits per day: 2

Again, there is no benefit to repeated visits. All benefits occur as a result of staying for the maximum time your body can safely handle at least a couple of times a week. If you are going back to the sauna more than once a day, you’re not helping yourself; you’re just consuming a shared resource more than others—at the expense of the shared resource’s utility for everyone.

No exercising!

For real. Don’t be stupid.

In a sauna, you’re already taxing your body under the excess heat. Adding exercise into the mix only reduces your ability to get the benefits of the sauna itself while risking your health.

Muscles and joints are also more pliable when hot. Careful and modest stretching might be ok, but be mindful you run the risk of over-stretching. And anything bigger than a modest stretch you’re already used to outside the sauna is going to risk injury. In fact, Bikram (hot) yoga is associated with a higher risk of injury due to this physiological fact.

If you do anything other than sit or stand still in the sauna, small and light stretching is the absolute most. Anything remotely like exercise is a major no-no.

Plus, it’s really impolite to your fellow sauna visitors to be breathing heavy, grunting, and taking up more space than necessary.