I Caved and Tried The Latest Wellness Trend—Six Months of Saunas Later, My Body Handles Stress Completely Differently

It's 6.30 pm on a Friday evening, and I'm so hot, I'm struggling to breathe. Thick heat has been pooling around my shoulders from the moment I sat down. Perhaps not surprising, given the UK's ongoing heatwave—but this heat hits different.

Sweat drips down my stomach as I focus on my breathing. Desperate for distraction, I try counting the panels on the wall. I fail, and instead find myself watching heatwaves rippling through the air. The smell of timber and warm pine fills my nostrils. My necklace burns against my skin. And then a man in a pointed wool hat asks the love-hate question: "Shall I pour some water over the coals?"

I'm trying Camberwell's newest sauna, Urban Heat, a wellness opening that's become something of a staple in mine and my husband's weekly routine. A traditional Finnish design, their sauna sits at anything from 75°C to 85°C—though, thankfully, there are ice baths, too, meaning you can cool off between rounds.

As a Wellness Editor, I've been well aware of the boom in interest in saunas over the past few years—I get about five different invites to new openings across the city every week.

But truthfully, I'd written them off. There wasn't one near us, and a 40-minute tube ride home is enough to undo any sense of calm. Beyond that, I'm also not particularly well acquainted with the art of sitting still. Even when I'm having my weekly Sunday night everything bath, I'm replying to emails, making to-do lists for the week ahead, and bookmarking "must hear" podcast eps.

But after hearing a colleague rave about the restorative effects that saunas had on her physical and mental wellbeing, I booked a session. A ritual central to Finnish life that dates back over 2,000 years may have only just made it to London, but I couldn't wait to get stuck in.

That was six months ago—and we've been most weekends since. Keen to see how the practice has transformed my calm? Keep scrolling, and don't miss our sauna blanket review, infrared sauna review, and guide to the benefits of using a sauna while you're here.

I've Recently Become a Sauna Convert—Here's Why

Why are saunas booming in popularity right now?

Speaking to Marie Claire UK previously, Jake Newport, a member of the British Sauna Society and CEO of Finnmark Sauna, explained that the boom in interest in saunas right now reflects a societal shift in how we're choosing to spend our free time. British culture has wellness at its core now - as I touched on in my recent fitness tourism article, we're craving experience, connection, and genuinely effective recovery practices.

“People are increasingly spending money on experiences that support their wellbeing, rather than going to the pub, because they offer a different kind of social connection,” he shared. “The rhythm of sitting together, slowing down, and stepping outside into the fresh air or cold water creates space for conversation and connection,” he says. “That’s a big part of why it’s resonating with so many people right now.”

What are the benefits of using a sauna?

There are a whole host of studies proving that using saunas regularly is good for both body and brain. The main benefits span improved cardiovascular health, neurocognitive health, stress regulation and sleep quality.

“Research has found that an evening sauna increased deep, slow-wave sleep by more than 70% in the first two hours of the night and by around 45% across the first six hours, compared with a night without sauna,” Newport goes on. “It also significantly reduced the amount of time people spent awake during the night.”

Not just that, but the heat of the sauna relaxes your muscles and improves circulation, with one recent UK-based studies from researchers at Oxford and Greenwich concluding that even monthly sauna sessions can boost your mental health - their hypothesis was that some of the benefit may come from the ritual and community aspect of sauna-going, not alongside the physical benefits of the heat itself.

“The heat encourages blood flow and oxygen delivery to muscles, which can help reduce soreness and stiffness,” says Newport, who cites a study published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. The researchers found that adding sauna sessions after training increased treadmill time to exhaustion by around 32%. In simple terms, the sauna “allowed people to run further and faster than they would if they didn’t sauna bathe,” he says.

Alanna Kit, neuroscientist and co-founder of Arc Community, adds: “When the body is exposed to heat, it activates the sympathetic nervous system, which is the same stress response triggered by anxiety, exercise, overwork, or emotional pressure. With regular practice, the sauna trains your nervous system to recognise that activation and return to equilibrium more efficiently. Over time, this builds our physiological resilience to stress.”

My Six Month-Long Sauna Journey

Months one to two:

Heading to the sauna for the first time, I'm not sure what to expect. I've checked what to pack on the website and have flip-flops, a towel, and toiletries for after our hour-long session. Reflecting on why I'm anxious about an hour spent unwinding, I realise that I haven't sat without screens, input, or noise for quite a long time.

I'm a marathon runner, you see, and a Health Editor at a heritage women's lifestyle magazine. Minutes are optimised; every second counts. Despite considering myself fairly healthy, somewhere along the way, I hadn't left much room for stillness.

That first sauna trip, I remember smiling around the ten-minute mark. Something shifted in me—no dramatic lightning bolt of clarity or wellness-influencer epiphany, rather, a small, quiet loosening, like I was finally exhaling after holding my breath for too long. My shoulders dropped. I unclenched my jaw. My brain went quiet.

Fast forward 60 minutes, and I feel like a floaty cloud. I'm physically less tense, mentally clearer, and unbelievably zen. As per Urban Heat's instructions, we do cycles of fifteen minutes in the sauna, followed by five minutes of ice bath, cold shower or ice plunge.

Week two, and I quickly learn just how much hotter the higher benches are. I plonk myself confidently on one of the top seats before realising that I can only make it to eight minutes—humbling, but a reminder that you need to accustom your body to the heat, as well as remember to respect the practice.

By the end of the first month, I'm actively looking forward to our weekly sauna session. I'm mid-marathon training block, and can actively feel the good that the heat is doing for my muscles and tired legs—while I can't afford weekly sports massages, a sauna trip feels like a close second, plus a more affordable (and less painful) way to give back to my body working so hard to bank the training miles.

Months three to four:

Come spring, and I'm faced with a highly stressful and busy few months, even by my standards. Work is busy, marathon training has ramped up, and I've been feeling a low-level hum of anxiety.

I realise that I've missed a few weeks of sauna visits because I've been so back-to-back with work, and book a session on the spot—my first solo session without my husband. I feel calmer with it in my calendar, and proud of myself for being proactive about my self-care and "me" time.

Come the weekend, I'm reminded of how grounding and soothing the whole experience can be. 60 minutes without a phone, screen, or any distractions is truly a gift in this day and age, and my body and mind are thanking me. Five minutes in, my brain is racing as much as I'm sweating. But come the ten-minute mark, I feel my mind starting to clear.

There's a particular kind of peace that only exists at 85 degrees, legs stuck to your towel and feet against a hot wooden floor. You can hear your heartbeat, your breathing, and the low murmur of other sauna attendees chatting about their week. It's cathartic, and the combination of the heat, your breath, and the beautiful realisation that there's no need to rush is the sort of instant reset it's hard to find in other wellness offerings.

I book a few more sessions for my husband and me on the spot, already excited to return.

Months five to six:

Come month five, and we're raving about our sauna experience so much to family and friends, we've made it a part of several weekends away. We visit saunas in Bristol, Brighton, and even Italy.

Italy is by far one of the most memorable—we're lucky enough to get to experience two traditional Aufguss rituals at Cape of Senses Hotel in Lake Garda and Sensoria Hotel in the Dolomites. Both have the same underlying structure—a guided session where trained "Aufgussmeisters" place balls of ice infused with calming essential oils onto the hot stones. They then use a towel to waft the steamed scent around the sauna, resulting in a more heightened experience.

It's intense, choreographed, and rather spiritual—unlike anything we'd experienced before. I'm also in awe of the level of skill both of our practitioners show, and impressed to learn that there are only ten trained at that level in the whole of Italy.

Back in London, though, and we're still happy regulars at Urban Heat. They have social Friday sessions, guided workshops, and even breathwork lessons to teach you more about the ways mastering your breathing can impact your sauna experience.

Six months on, and I think it's evidence enough of how much I've loved our new Friday night ritual that we're still going. I'm pretty hard to impress when it comes to wellness trends—they need to be truly transformative, easy to incorporate into my day-to-day routine, and genuinely worth my time.

But the sauna, for us, has been all of that and more. I'm less achy, sleeping better, and my stress levels have gone down significantly (both my Garmin and Oura agree). Most of all, though, I love our little Friday wellness ritual—it's social enough to replace the pub, while being incredibly soothing at the same time.

I guess the Finns were right. Saunas aren't rooms built for comfort—they're rooms built for surrender, which, as it turns out, was exactly what I needed.

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