Infrared Sauna Blankets - The New Portable Sauna
Infrared sauna; one of the most renowned treatment applications for health benefits.
However, amongst the options for sauna usage there is usually a low degree of portability.
Today, we discuss infrared sauna blankets - which may finally offer a portable and compact alternative to traditional saunas!
What Are Infrared Sauna Blankets?
An infrared sauna blanket is not all that much different from your traditional sauna.
They also may be referred to as “red light therapy blankets”.
The primary difference is that as opposed to your traditional sauna “room” they instead are a blanket option that is wrapped around the user, generating infrared light and heat.
One of the most inconvenient characteristics of a sauna for many users is the lack of portability.
Unless you have a home sauna, it isn’t a highly accessible nor home based option - often requiring travel.
The only other option is to purchase your own sauna, which may be an inconvenience cost wise or simply impractical space wise.
Blankets can simply be plugged in, mimicking a sauna and the benefits it provides.
Infrared Sauna Benefits and Uses
Infrared saunas are notorious for their many health benefits, and it is no secret why.
Some of the boasted benefits include:
- Inflammation reduction
- Detoxification and waste or toxin excretion from the lymph glands through sweat
One of the crucial benefits of saunas, sweating is highly beneficial in terms of detoxification.
Improvements in sweating can optimise detox pathways and lymphatic drainage, allowing your body to move excess waste and toxicity out of your system through your skin/glands.
This can offer benefits in a vast variety of health applications (both surface and systemic), e.g supportive treatment for metal toxicity for instance.
- Blood flow and circulation improvement
The heat of an infrared sauna can offer a great circulation boost, helping you to restore needed blood flow to areas of your body.
- Post workout/exercise recovery
They can both speed muscle recovery and help to diminish pain you may experience.
- Pain reduction
Conditions or ailments that result in chronic pain may drastically benefit from sauna use.
They can contribute to pain reduction on a core level.
Many rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia patients have reported benefits, and these also apply to acute pain settings too.
Take post exercise muscle soreness/pain for instance.
Using a sauna post workout may help to speed recovery significantly!
- Potential cardiovascular benefits
Saunas have even been shown to hold benefits for cardiovascular or heart health.
Blood pressure and heart health improvements through sweating have been reported (this could also be due to removal of toxins from the system and lowered oxidative stress).
Selecting The Best Infrared Sauna Blanket
Infrared sauna blankets vary in terms of settings (heat and infrared light) and other base characteristics.
- Settings
Temperature will likely be your main concern - so when selecting a blanket determine how high (or hot) you are looking to experience.
Check for built in timer/heat range settings.
If you want something easily portable, opt for a blanket that folds up for compact use.
Note:
If you are a first time user, you may prefer to start off on the lower end as you grow accustomed to the treatment.
Increase slowly as desired.
- Check what it is made of
Your blanket should be easy to clean and reuse, so go for something durable and water resistant if possible (view this in the specifications/description section).
- Other features
You can also check that the blanket is the appropriate size you desire, and of course there are other small features or preferences you may wish to select such as colour.
- Lastly, what is your budget?
Check what you are looking to spend.
Usage:
Proper usage should be implemented for best results.
- You want to cover the body properly, so lie down and wrap yourself up entirely - similarly to how you would use a sleeping bag.
- The goal is to sweat - so don’t go overboard, but ensure that you are working up a solid sweat to achieve results!
You can always remove the blanket or lower the setting if it becomes too much.
- You should also go slowly and avoid going over 3 times a week with usage.
- Properly rehydrate post use.
Takeaway:
Infrared sauna blankets aren’t intended to necessarily replace a sauna, and one may still desire to experience the traditional treatment.
They do, however, present a viable option for a potentially otherwise inaccessible treatment - allowing those who can’t/have restricted access to a sauna to experience the benefits comfortably from home!
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