How to Turn Your Sauna into a Full-Body Relaxation Experience (Under $100)

After reviewing over 42 sauna brands and testing everything from sound therapy to red light, I’ve learned that small changes can completely transform your sauna routine. In this video, I’ll walk you through three easy ways to upgrade your sauna experience using light, smell, and sound. You don’t need a fancy full-spectrum setup or expensive gear—just a few smart tweaks can help you build a real healing sanctuary right at home.

Read the transcript >

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Transcript

So while we’ve reviewed a ton of saunas and biohacking and health and wellness equipment on the channel here, saunas are a wonderful tool. It’s our number one thing that has changed life after life after life that we’ve seen anecdotal proof evidence here and there from 30,000 group members, everything under the sun.

But there’s a few ways that you can make it a multi-sensory relaxational experience for yourself with just a couple of modifications and they’re not that expensive to do. So the first thing we’re going to talk about is light. And don’t be like the Batman and only come out at night.

Keep your circadian rhythm intact. Not every single sauna has red light therapy in it. Not every single sauna has chromotherapy in it. Some people suggest that it’s great to have mood lighting, which I consider chromotherapy to be.

I do not consider it a reputable source of photobiomodulation. Why? It doesn’t have an output strength at the distance or the mounting location to really deliver those frequencies to the body to achieve those outcomes that are substantiated in the low-level laser therapy PubMed studies. So if you want to do that, here’s what I would suggest.

Add a red light therapy device to your sauna or to your pre-sauna protocol. We have other videos like the biohacking zone or laying out your biohacking studio that cover that in detail. But basically the nuts and the bolts are you want to be really careful about having your core temperature super high when you do photobiomodulation or red light therapy or any kind of colored light therapy because that conversion can get downregulated if your skin is covered with a thick layer of sweat or your core temperature is too high.

You really need to have a cool body temperature. So there’s a couple ways you can do that. You can either mount a red light therapy device to the outside of your sauna, stand in front of it, do your rebounding like we suggest in other videos, do your vibration plate, do this, do that.

Or you could take a small panel, mount it in the corner.

your sauna and as soon as you turn your sauna on to preheat or even beforehand get in do your red light therapy session and then as it’s heating up as everything is prepped you’re already done you go right into your sauna session you’re combining therapies. Some people like to say you should just buy a full spectrum sauna to do this but I disagree.

The reason why is that usually sauna companies are confusing you when it comes to light therapy. Chromotherapy is not photobiomodulation mood lighting is not photobiomodulation and what’s even worse is the new saunas that come out that put a red light therapy panel in the back corner mounted on a 45 that kind of just shine at the side of your body.

I’m not sure how anyone thinks that that’s going to do you any good. So to come full circle that’s only one portion of light therapy. All types of light are great. If you’re a person who loves to be in blue light purple light green light orange light whatever and you like mood lighting and you say that gives you a lift in or some type of benefit absolutely have at it.

Just don’t confuse that with photobiomodulation and don’t think that a full spectrum sauna is giving you either one of those in a healthy dose. Let’s move on to sensory input number two. Smell. Smell can be very powerful.

There are all types of herbal essences there’s all types of homeopathic remedies there’s all types of supplements that you can use that work off of smell and some folks get amazing results. Now me personally incorporating aromatherapy into the sauna can both be beneficial and it can also create a little bit too much intensity for me because you’re in a small closed environment.

So while I like it you could do a little eucalyptus oil you could do a popular blend that’s a relaxation blend. Very pleasant very nice it sets the tone sets the rhythm sets the habits makes it a ritual for every time you go in the sauna it’s completing this relaxation technique.

I love that idea. There’s two things that you want to watch out for though. I don’t use aromatherapy in the sauna all the time just because my nose gets a little sensitive and it can be too strong. That could be my application maybe I should dilute the drug.

drops and use a carrier oil. You also have to remember that if you use a shot glass and use a mount that has the shot glass in front of the heater, that that’s going to dry out at an accelerated rate, right? So this can do two things. It can also make it really, really strong, really, really quick when you put it in the heat and you’re also have the door shut.

You’re not venting and stuff like that. And number two, it’ll eat up the liquid super, super quick. I’m using the wrong terminology when I say to thicken it up, but basically to increase the volume so that the heat doesn’t cause it to evaporate so quickly. When you speed that up too fast, I think it’s a little bit of an over sensation, but that’s for me personally.

Other folks absolutely love it and swear by it. So don’t take one little point from me as the end all be all. You got to experiment a little bit, see what’s right for you. Listen to others, get ideas and try it out.

I think you’ll really love it. And it will definitely incorporate more of your senses into a healing sanctuary experience with your sauna. Last but not least, let’s get to number three, which I think can be one of the most powerful senses to incorporate with your sauna. Why?

Because a meditation track, a sound therapy, a resonant frequency, anything that is right for your body in your situation, on your health journey can help bring your nervous system and your stress level from here to here just by incorporating sound. Let’s talk about a couple of different variations that you might like.

So after testing the majority of this infrared saunas on the planet, brand after brand after brand, the majority of them come with a sound system. Some of them are not so great. You definitely get what you pay for in this department. Meaning if you’re buying a cheaper sauna or you’re getting like an Amazon thing or something like that, sometimes they come with a mono speaker in the ceiling.

Why do I bring this up? It’s really not to harp on them. It’s so that you understand that there’s not stereo output in the sauna. So if you try to listen to some type of isochronic sound, not necessarily a binaural beat, you should really wear headphones for that.

But certain meditation tracks are playing two different sounds.

in stereo on different sides to recalibrate the brainwave state that you’re currently in. If you have a mono speaker or something like that, some of this technology will not come out. The sound system output will not be in the right order for you or orientation. So that said, the majority of the good saunas have stereo speakers, which is a left and a right.

If you connect and play a meditation track or a healing frequency or some type of resonant meditation, you might really, really, really enjoy the experience because it can bring your nervous system down even further. You combine that with some breath work and now you have a relaxing healing sanctuary that you can truly just unwind and de-stress in.

This is one of the number one benefits of having a sauna in your own home and helping to set up like some type of biohacking or healing studio so that you have a place to truly unwind and de-stress and just think and have some space away from the day and all the troublesome things that we come across in life.

If you have a sauna, some companies don’t put speakers in their saunas. You can always use like one of those JBL pair of speaker pods or something like that. They sound really good. In some instances, they sound way better than the cheap sauna stereo systems that come installed in the ceiling, especially the mono ones.

So you know, just because you don’t have something like that doesn’t mean that you can’t try this. Just wanted to point out that there’s always a way to make it work no matter your budget, no matter your equipment, and no matter your space requirements. Just a few examples of how you can make your sauna experience a multi-sensory relaxational experience.

Pull in light, sound, and smell and see how you can transform your sauna experience in the courtesy of your own home. Let me know in the comments what you think. If you have an idea we haven’t thought of. This is an upcoming series, so we’re going to talk about a lot more than just these three, but have you tried these?

Do you like them? Do you hate them? Let us know in the comments. We’ll see you in the next one.

Listen, Ron, video guy. The intro is done.

redoing it anymore. You YouTubers, s**t him in the comments. You tell him, this s**t sucks. Oh no, I will put that at the end.

This one, this one lady was like, Matt, you seem to have anger issues. You should probably seek therapy.