“Infrared saunas work better than traditional saunas.”

The research found this

Researchers in Oregon compared a far-infrared cabin with a traditional sauna in the same 20 healthy young adults. A hot bath served as a third condition, and the sessions were at least a week apart.1Source 1 · Crossover trialComparison of thermoregulatory, cardiovascular, and immune responses to different passive heat therapy modalitiesAtencio JK, Reed EL, Wiedenfeld Needham K, et al.. American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 2025.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ The traditional sauna ran three 10-minute rounds with the thermostat set to 80°C, and the infrared session lasted 45 minutes. Both rooms were cooler than their dials said. In the traditional sauna, a calibrated probe measured the air at 66°C while the thermostat read 78°C. The infrared cabin's air measured 45°C, and its thermostat read 57°C.

The traditional sauna worked the body harder. Core temperature rose 0.4°C there and held steady in the infrared cabin, and that difference was too big to put down to chance (P = 0.02). Skin warmed 8.3°C in the sauna and 6.1°C in the cabin.1Source 1 · Crossover trialComparison of thermoregulatory, cardiovascular, and immune responses to different passive heat therapy modalitiesAtencio JK, Reed EL, Wiedenfeld Needham K, et al.. American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 2025.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Heart rate and the amount of blood the heart pumped pointed the same way, and those differences could have been chance. Only the hot bath changed immune cells or the signaling molecules called cytokines.

Run hotter, an infrared cabin can heat the body the way a traditional sauna does. Twelve adults spent 45 minutes in a commercial cabin that averaged 63.9°C. Their rectal temperature rose 1.4°C, and heart rate climbed from 74 to 153 beats a minute.2Source 2 · Clinical trialFar‐infrared sauna exposure at 65°C elevates core temperatureJenkins EJ, Killick JA, Grimm SR, et al.. Experimental Physiology, 2026.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Two of the 12 stopped early because of extreme discomfort. A separate 45-minute study in a commercial infrared cabin found no change in core temperature.3Source 3 · Clinical trialMuscle temperature increases during a single far infrared sauna session without changes in intestinal temperatureReed EL, Uzoekwe CC, Atencio JK, et al.. Journal of Applied Physiology, 2025.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗

Most of the medical case for infrared comes from Japan's Waon therapy for heart failure. A Waon session means 15 minutes in a 60°C far-infrared sauna and then 30 minutes resting under a warm blanket. A 2009 evidence summary found those studies small and short, and it noted that one core research group ran all of them.4Source 4 · Systematic reviewFar-infrared saunas for treatment of cardiovascular risk factors: summary of published evidenceBeever R. Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 2009.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ The largest randomized trial enrolled 149 patients and fell short on the main outcome it set out to test.5Source 5 · Randomized trialWaon Therapy for Managing Chronic Heart Failure – Results From a Multicenter Prospective Randomized WAON-CHF Study –Tei C, Imamura T, Kinugawa K, et al.. Circulation Journal, 2016.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗

The long-running Finnish study that tied frequent sauna use to longer life followed men who used traditional saunas at about 79°C.6Source 6 · Cohort studyAssociation Between Sauna Bathing and Fatal Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality EventsLaukkanen T, Khan H, Zaccardi F, et al.. JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Infrared cabins have never been tested against those long-term outcomes. When a 2018 review set out to pool the sauna trials in heart failure, only infrared studies qualified.7Source 7 · Meta-analysisEffects of sauna bath on heart failure: A systematic review and meta‐analysisKällström M, Soveri I, Oldgren J, et al.. Clinical Cardiology, 2018.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗