Review: Sweating it out in the Higher Dose infrared sauna blanket
- Ryan Costello
- February 17, 2021
- 3:52 pm
I’m currently wrapped up like a 6ft long purple burrito. My heart racing, I’m sweating so much I’m beginning to question whether it’s possible to drown in your own perspiration.
Infrared saunas have become the latest must-try wellness trend in recent years thanks to glowing recommendations from A-listers like Selena Gomez and Lady Gaga. However, in the current age of lockdown visiting a spa is out of the question, and my house isn’t exactly the sort of palatial manor where you can build your own walk-in sauna in the east wing. That’s why for the past 45-minutes I have been doing this sweaty Mexican meat impression in a Higher Dose Infrared Sauna Blanket which is lying on my bed.
While people from different cultures have sweated it out in caves, baths and lodges for thousands of years, it’s safe to say they haven’t done it quite like this. First off, this Goop-certified approach to sauna is a very solitary rather than social experience. It gets pretty cosy in one of these blankets (probably not one for claustrophobics) and you’d have to be very friendly with someone to attempt to get in together… and ideally both be trained contortionists.
As for the reasons you might want to wrap yourself up like a piece of cooked meat, infrared treatments like this are seen by some as the number one bio-hack, offering potential benefits such as making you feel calmer, soothing muscles and joints, and (depending on who you are listening to) detoxify the body by increasing the body’s thermal energy and increasing blood flow.
So it is with this in mind that I climb into blanket, dial up the temperature to a maximum nine out of nine setting, and velcro myself in.
Given the cocoon-like nature of the waterproof and velcro-sealed blankets, you are also left gazing towards the ceiling, this fine if you want to pop on some headphone to catch up on your podcasts, or even watch something on your phone, but not ideal positioning for a social experience. The skywards gaze also meant I spent at least 10 minutes of my first session wondering how long it had been since I last painted the bedroom ceiling.
That said, my first 30 minutes in the blanket made for a very pleasant experience, the gentle warmth and the reassuring weight of the blanket make it surprisingly comforting. Even once the blanket reached full temperature it was still nice and cosy. But then, very suddenly, I was hit by the sensation that my sweat had suddenly decide it wanted to escape my body very quickly and I started sweating like never before. I’m used to practicing yoga in heated studios with temperatures in the mid 40s (degrees C) and will happily sit in a traditional sauna for ages as others come, look at their watches and then go back out mumbling about how it’s too hot. At this point I saw why users are advised to wear a thin layer of clothing in the sauna blanket. Without it to mop up my sweat I would have felt like a carnival goldfish being carried home by a lucky child.
For the final 15 minutes of my session I continued to sweat profusely. That previous level of comfort became a distant memory as I repeatedly asked Alexa how long was left on my timer… often discovering it was less than a minute since I last asked. When the timer finally rang and I was able to emerge from my cocoon it was in sweat-drenched clothes and in desperate need of a cool shower, not exactly a graceful butterfly.
After the session I feel relaxed and I have one of the best nights sleep I have for weeks. The following morning my Whoop tracker informs me that I am well recovered and have a positively trending heart rate variability. I’ll go into more detail about exactly what that means in a upcoming review of the Whoop band, but until then let’s say it suggests the sauna blanket is living up to its promises. In fact, over recent months I have continued to use the sauna blanket several times a week.
Given many of us are, at the time of writing, living in lockdown and unable to maintain the wellness routines we have become used to, the Higher Dose sauna blanket offers a great way of getting a heat fix at home. While it’s not exactly the hot yoga replacement I am currently dreaming of, a 40-minute hot shavassana in the blanket after a home yoga practice is pretty good right now. We give it a 5/5. The Higher Dose infrared sauna blanket is available now for around £400 or US$500.
