It’s not just the heat
I’ve noticed there's a moment most people have at Sauna Society, usually somewhere around their second or third visit. It’s when the heat stops being the main event. And it becomes more about the people your with, the shared experience, the connection that happens with the routine of turning up on a Monday knowing who'll be there.
I’'ve watched it happen so many times and now there's a study behind it.
A team of UK researchers, led by Dr Martha Newson at the University of Greenwich and Oxford's Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion, spent time looking into what actually makes sauna good for people. Not just the physical side — cardiovascular health, recovery, all the things sauna's known for — but the mental and emotional side too. And they found something interesting: the social connection and shared ritual of sauna use may matter as much as the heat itself. People who felt a stronger sense of belonging within their sauna community reported better wellbeing, both physical and mental. Weekly use lifted physical wellbeing. Even monthly use lifted mental wellbeing. The room, not just the temperature, was doing some of the work.
None of that surprised me. But it's good to have it backed up.
Since we opened, Sauna Society has grown from a handful of curious first-timers into something that looks a lot like what the study describes — a small, regular community built around a fire, a river, and not much else. People show up on their own and leave having made three new friends. Some regulars have started syncing their sauna times in order to catch up. The study makes the point that you don't need deep conversation for the connection to count.
That's the part of sauna that's harder to put on a flyer. The heat's the easy part. The belonging isn't something we can promise — it just seems to turn up on its own, session after session, for people who keep coming back.
If you're new to Sauna Society, this is maybe the best reason to give it more than one visit. The first time, it's just heat and river and the incredible feeling after. By the third or fourth, it starts to feel like something else — a space with people who've decided, without really discussing it, to show up for the same quiet hour each week.
We probably didn't need a study to know all this, but it's nice that the science agrees.
Mark.
Reference: Newson, M., McGrath, R., Mosina, I., Reason, G., & Peitz, L. (2026). Sauna culture improves physical and mental wellbeing in the UK through social connection and ritual. Social Science & Medicine, 394, 119061. Read the open access paper
