Across the UK, sauna use is booming, with the British Sauna Society now counting over 600 public saunas via its UK Sauna Map. Its popularity can be explained by the physical and mental health benefits it delivers, which has decades of empirical studies to support it.
Until recently, the social factors of collective sweat bathing and their associated rituals have received little attention from scientists. New collaborative research from Dr Martha Newson (Institute of Lifecourse Development, University of Greenwich) and Rachael McGrath (The London Interdisciplinary School) marks a great step towards understanding how these ancient practices could be reapplied and reinterpreted for modern society and healthcare.
Sauna practice is emerging as a serious health and social wellbeing intervention.
“Sauna has well-evidenced benefits for our physical health, but our research suggests it offers something just as important: connection. In turn, this social connection elevates our mental wellbeing. In cultures around the world where sauna and steam are embedded, hot spaces function as social institutions as much as health practices – from Finland, to Japan, to Indigenous American practices. Our data show that shared ritual is integral to the feelings of connection and wellbeing that emerge from sauna use. People don’t just go for the heat; they go for the community, which is what makes sauna so powerful in the UK.”
- Dr Martha Newson, Institute of Lifecourse Development, University of Greenwich & Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion, University of Oxford
Building on the social cure model, which identifies how membership to social groups fosters mental and physical wellbeing, the study suggests sauna is not just an individual wellness practice, but offers a social hub that fosters communal belonging and inclusion.
While the UK experiences what is described as a loneliness epidemic, and analysis finds that poor social relationships are as much of a health risk as cigarettes and alcohol, the research suggests that sauna practice could be explored as a preventative lifestyle intervention.
Dr Martha Newson connects the findings to other intense ritual practices practiced globally, drawing parallels with the power of collective sauna rituals to allow participants to “bond at a deeper level than many [other] group activities.”
