Way back in the 1980s, when morals were loose and everyone thought they’d live forever, it seemed as though every gym in the country had a steam room. The best places had more than one. They were totally unsupervised, frequently placed where there was a direct line of sight with the front desk, and the only rules posted were about not messing with the thermostat. The pregnancy rate was high and the communicable disease rate was even higher.
By the time the 2000s rolled around, people who were somewhat astonished to still be here suddenly discovered Native American sweat lodges and decided that getting in touch with their inner mental illness might be a good idea. Few of these places were run by indigenous people who understood the ancient customs surrounding sweat lodges. Like saunas, they were places to go and sweat, get high, and blame anything that happened on a fox, or wolf, or other forest creature that occupied one’s vision deep into the event.
While there are ancient rituals around both saunas and sweat lodges, the new versions had a lot of problems. They weren’t healthy. No one ever wiped anything down. Few people stayed sufficiently hydrated. People with high blood pressure and/or heart disease were continually having to be carried out on a stretcher.
Despite all the drawbacks, multiple sources, including the Associated Press, are reporting this morning that communal saunas are not only making a comeback, they’re the next big wellness craze in the UK. Think sauna club nights featuring DJs, saunas combined with a poetry workshop, or “aufguss” (meaning “infusion” in German) rituals – an intense session blending heat therapy, music, and scent.
How popular are these things? They’ve grown from 45 in 2023 to 147 so far this year, according to the British Sauna Society, and those are mostly in and around areas where young people in their 20s and 30s tend to congregate. Communal saunas are the pubs and dance clubs of this young generation.
Imagine ambient sauna nights with five or six of your best friends. Maybe creative writing saunas, though we’re still wondering how they keep the paper or electronic device dry. Poetry saunas are apparently a thing.
One sauna owner says that a large part of the appeal for many fans is that saunas serve as “a place of communion,” much like a pub or a church. He then immediately followed that statement with “Sauna lowers inhibitions and also gives you a feeling of mild euphoria, not unlike the effects of social drinking, I think it’s an excellent place to socialize”. We’d like to know what church this guy’s attending.
The actual wellness benefits of saunas are a bit sketchy. Some swear by saunas and cold plunges for soothing joint inflammation and improving heart health and sleep. One study suggested a link between going to the sauna at least four times a week and a reduction in the risk of psychosis among middle-aged Finnish men. We don’t know what manner of psychosis middle-aged Finnish men have, but we’re guessing it has something to do with blondes in tiny swimwear.
Could communal wellness saunas ‘jump the pond’ and become popular in the US? In a country where one in four people claim to be OCD (not necessarily diagnosed as such), we’re guessing probably not. At the same time, this sounds exactly like the type of ‘alternative medicine’ approach that our Secretary of Health and Human Services likes to push. Who knows, maybe your HMO will pay for it in the future.
In place of vaccinations.
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