Is sauna the secret to happiness?
There are 3 million saunas to 5 million people in Finland and this could be the reason why they are all so content. We test it out.
There’s something jarring about seeing your colleagues in their swimwear. One minute, you’re in a professional environment, networking, fully clothed. The next? You’re networking while sitting next to one another in a dark cabin, wearing a sliver of Lycra. This is how work and play is done in Finland, as I discover on a recent trip to the country.
The sauna culture here is no secret. The tradition is so central to Finnish lives that in 2020 it was added to UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
There are Finnish people alive today who were born in saunas: considered hygienic with access to hot water, they were used for giving birth, treating the sick and preparing the dead for burial – the full circle of life.
Today, for a population of 5.5 million, there are more than 3 million saunas. In Helsinki there is even one on a ferris wheel. Two Finns I meet admit they don’t enjoy it, but they do so in a whisper and only once we’re alone.
I had assumed that I knew the drill: get naked, sweat. Turns out, there’s a lot for the visitor to learn – and quickly, given a new wave of sauna enthusiasm.
Even Britain is taking up the trend. According to the British Sauna Society, there are more than 70 “authentic saunas” in the country, a number that has doubled every year since 2018. The Times declared private saunas one of the year’s status symbols, and a recent documentary, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, has been tipped for an Oscar. Basically, it’s full steam ahead.
Given the surge in popularity of cold-water swimming, it’s perhaps not surprising we’re looking to warm up too.
That’s how the Finns do it; switching between 90C heat and plunging into freezing cold water, sometimes through a hole drilled into a frozen river or lake. Given Finland has been named the happiest country on the planet by the United Nations for six years in a row, perhaps there’s something to it.
It’s certainly good for you. Used sensibly (drink water, don’t stay in for more than 15-20 minutes at a time and leave if you feel unwell), taking a sauna can improve blood circulation, relax the muscles and boost skin health.
The Hotel Maria, Helsinki’s newest five-star property, which opened in December, claims its sauna and cold pool can help with detoxification, enhanced immunity and stress relief. Certainly after a quick 10pm sauna session in my own Helsinki hotel, Scandic Grand Central (surprisingly chic for a hotel next to the main train station and with an unrivalled Nordic breakfast buffet), I sleep better than I have in weeks.
Sauna enthusiast Tuomas Paloniemi lives in the southern city of Tampere – the so-called “sauna capital of the world”, with more than 60 public saunas for 250,000 people – and started taking saunas with his family at six months of age.
For him the mental health benefits are a big attraction. “Sauna is a place where you can let your guard down and there are no distractions,” he says. “That makes it easier to talk about life or share problems, even with strangers. You can be your authentic self when you’re reminded that bodies come in all shapes and sizes.”
That’s not to say you have to bare all. I’d assumed that going naked was the done thing, but despite the cultural stereotype, Finns tend to disrobe only in private saunas or single-sex environments. In mixed public saunas, the etiquette is to don swimwear and sit on sheets of absorbent paper, rather than a towel.
Saunas also offer a potential cure for loneliness, too. “Often older people will come if they’re lonely or want to get to know their neighbours. There are groups who only gather in public saunas; they go there specifically to talk,” Paloniemi says.
Is this something we could learn from? “People can be a bit insular, so this is a way to come together and socialise,” says Belfast native Michael Newitt, who has lived in Finland for six years and runs the Helsinki Distilling Company. Helsinki resident Heidi Johansson concurs: “It’s a bit like going to the pub.”
Indeed, at the city’s 24-hour Sompasauna, set up by three hippie friends who reconditioned an abandoned sauna, the Friday afternoon atmosphere isn’t unlike a British watering hole. It’s run by the local community, which means men and women (many naked, ignoring social norms) chopping wood with axes and carrying smouldering buckets of ash. There are no showers here.
After sitting, in my swimsuit, among the friendly locals, I clean off in the sea by climbing down an icicle-encrusted ladder into a hole cut into the ice. On Johansson’s advice, I take short breaths in and force long, loud breaths out to avoid hyperventilating. After about 30 seconds, I scramble out and grab my towel only to find I don’t actually need it. My skin is zinging, so it’s just a short walk through the snow to the sauna to warm up.
Every sauna I visit is buzzing with the same energy. At the other end of the scale is the minimalist and modern Kuuma in Tampere, which has a Nordic restaurant attached and where groups of friends are enjoying cocktails before a sauna and dip in Pyhajarvi lake.
Meanwhile the Allas Sea Pool, an outdoor swimming complex with five “observation deck” saunas by Helsinki’s waterfront, is filled with women putting the world to rights. A three-hour ticket seems ludicrous, but two hours in and I’m not ready to leave; washing away the stresses of the week, it turns out, can’t be rushed.
Which is why, instead of simply adding them on LinkedIn, I find myself stripping down with my new work connections, from government advisers to local guides. It’s one of the things the Finnish take pride in: that the sauna is somewhere a president or chief executive can sit alongside a nurse or a butcher. Everyone is equal in the steam.
That steam – called loyly (pronounced “low-loo”) – is central to the experience. The Finns enjoy the sensation whenever and wherever they can; saunas aren’t the preserve of those able to afford luxury spa breaks.
Minja, 39, tells me her apartment building in Helsinki has two communal saunas for residents and that her family-sized flat also has its own private one. “My previous apartment only had one communal sauna and we found it hard to move,” she says. “Buyers didn’t want to live somewhere where they didn’t have a sauna inside their flat as well.”
I leave Finland with a sense that we all have an opportunity to engage with a ritual that promotes calm and camaraderie, not to mention a hot place to seek sanctuary during the cold, grey winter months.
Four top sauna spots in Europe
1. Ood, Lunan Bay, near Dundee, Scotland
It seems fitting that Lunan Bay, on the dramatic Angus coastline, was once a landing point for 10th-century Viking armies. The luxury Ood Mirror cabins here now offer private saunas to those seeking to unwind, Nordic-style but surrounded by wild Scottish coastline. You’ll stay on the grounds of the Arbikie Distillery, founded in 2014 on the site of a 200-year-old distillery. It is striving to be one of the world’s most sustainable alcohol producers; it claims to make the world’s first climate-positive gin and vodka, as well as whisky. All the more reason to sweat it out in the sauna after a day’s tasting; double rooms from £180 ($350) a night.
2. Iglupark, Tallinn, Estonia
Estonia’s smoke sauna culture dates back to the 13th century and, like in Finland, it is considered important enough to be included on the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List. Iglupark, on the waterfront in Tallinn, is a modern interpretation of the tradition, with spacecraft-like black sauna pods that sit right on the Baltic. Their location means they are perfect for plunging in for a cool-down. There are chic Scandi-style huts that come with a kitchenette and terrace overlooking the water, and the saunas can be hired privately for up to 10 people; self-catering accommodation for two from €159 ($260) a night. Sauna hire starts at €120 an hour (minimum two hours).
3. Preidlhof, South Tyrol, Italy
Hotel Preidlhof has its own way of straddling the hot and cold inherent in sauna culture: it’s set on the edge of the Mediterranean, with almost year-round sunshine and olive groves, alongside snow-capped mountains and skiing at nearby Schnalstal glacier. The 71-room adults-only wellness hotel has what it calls a “sauna tower”, run by a “sauna master” and featuring 16 separate saunas, all with different levels of humidity. There’s a wine sauna, an olive sauna, a steam sauna, a “hot & fun” sauna (the mind boggles) and many have panoramic views across the mountains. Specific programs, guided by doctors, focus on menopause, grief, trauma and sleep disturbance; double rooms from €227 a night.
4. La Fantaisie, Paris, France
Embrace the botanical theme of this new hotel in Paris’s 9th arrondissement. It has a largely plant-based menu, a secret garden and a subterranean spa, where floral ceramic tiles line the walls of the wellness areas and the products are vegan. The main attractions are the wood sauna, luxury infra-red sauna and hammam mineral bath. There are also cold water baths, fountains and crushed ice to get your endorphins pumping; double rooms from €349 a night.
Claire Cohen was a guest of the Finnish Foreign Ministry.
THE TIMES
