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Comment by stevekemp | Hacker News Reader

I made the mistake of looking at /r/sauna on Reddit once or twice recently, and there was a lot of people doing very similar things.

"I take my preworkout, do my exercise, then I sit for 12 minutes at 90 degrees in sauna, before three minutes in the cold plunge-pool at 8 degrees, before going to sauna again for 19 minutes and I finish with a seven minute warm shower".

Just the thought of looking at a watch in a sauna, and timing things minute by minute sounded exhausting.

I assume going to sauna takes an hour, it might be I leave it on for a couple of hours, but beyond that the minutes inside/outside are a mystery and I like it like that. Same story with being outdoors in a cabin/cottage. I might dig up some plants, or move the hammock around, but whether I get (literally) dirty is just down to whatever random things I've done that day!

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Your comment reminds me of

The Hustle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o7qjN3KF8U

> Just the thought of looking at a watch in a sauna

You don't take your watch into the sauna! It's way too hot! I use a plain mechanical kitchen timer (outside the sauna). I've seen hourglasses that are designed to withstand the heat inside the sauna, but they're obviously not configurable to various increments.

More seriously: apparently studies show that using a Finnish (dry) sauna 5-7 times a week is good for longevity. You don't have to use them that way, but if that's your goal, it probably makes sense to fit it into your routine, and it's tough to do that without planning how long it will take.

Or people who can withstand saunas naturally love longer? Maybe even despite them?

If it's 90 degrees Celcius, I don't think you could sit there for an hour. If it's 90 american degrees, what kind of sauna is that?

weird huh, in neither system does 90 degrees make for a useful sauna. that's either lukewarm, or cooking temp.

90C is a normal sauna temperature. It's on the hot side, but normal.

Right you are. It's little a bit warm for my personal taste, but sure, for a 10 to 15 minute session, ok. It was late, and I was thinking more of the 90F as not even as hot as normal outdoors for many parts of the globe.

Perhaps we are missing some details with respect to humidity?

If it's a very humid sauna at 90°F, then your body can't regulate itself with sweat evaporation.

I have a dodgy thermometer on the wall, and I tend to enter the sauna when it shows 80, by the time I leave it's usually been showing 90 for half the time. Celcius.

It probably just comes from tweaking the routine. Maybe they started out at 15 minutes in the sauna and 5 minutes in the cold plunge, but found they were getting too hot in the sauna and too cold in the cold plunge.

> Just the thought of looking at a watch in a sauna, and timing things minute by minute sounded exhausting.

"Hey <smartwatch>, set a timer for 12 minutes" doesn't sound very exhausting.

You will now be subject to the whims of a timer in the future. If that's not exhausting for you, go for it.

I'm not subject to the whims of anything except what I just asked for.

I can also cancel it just as easily, if it's exhausting. Which--I'm finding it hard to understand why it would be.

I don't schedule my life like that at all, I kinda wander around all day. But the idea of a reminder that I specifically asked for? It's the only kind of reminder I want, actually. It'll keep me from the actually-exhausting habit of checking my watch or wondering how long it's been.

I don't use a sauna. In my imagination some people might prefer to stop their sauna usage when it feels right. That doesn't require checking a timer.

That's certainly how it is for me; mentally I think sauna is an hour, of 5-15 minute chunks inside the warm room, but sometimes it might be more.

There are days when I walk in and immediately nope-out after a couple of minutes, and that's usually a sign that I'm getting sick.

But when it stops feeling good that's the time to leave, or stop for the evening.

If your smartwatch doesn't burn your wrist in the sauna, it's not hot enough ;)

If your smartwatch's Lithium Ion Battery Pack doesn't explode and amputate your arm in the sauna, it's not hot enough ;)

Do you mean you literally sit in the sauna for hour?

I don't think anyone is capable to sit in a 90-100C sauna for a whole hour without breaks, otherwise with breaks I surely have been in a sauna for more than an hour.

Just this summer I was at a cottage by Vänern (the largest lake in Sweden), the sauna was built right at the lake with a pier setup for jumping into it, we had a party going late into the night where you constantly moved from the sauna into the lake, out of the lake, have chats, a beer, into the sauna again, rinse and repeat for some 8-10 hours. I have no idea exactly how long I was in the sauna but it was definitely more than a couple of hours in the whole affair :)

>I don't think anyone is capable to sit in a 90-100C sauna for a whole hour without breaks, otherwise with breaks I surely have been in a sauna for more than an hour.

Yes, I definitely do agree with that. I too love what you're describing - we have some of that in Poland too :)

However, I was not sure if we're talking about it - or some American version I know only from various memes - where people are coming in with phones and in shoes.

If you ever basta in winter, try bringing ice into the sauna. Smearing yourself with ice while in the heat is really nice :)

> I assume going to sauna takes an hour, [...] but beyond that the minutes inside/outside are a mystery...

I understand that as the general act of getting up, starting the sauna, going for your clothes change, resting a couple times, going to the kitchen for water, shower, switch off, kitchen again, whatever... you've filled an hour of your time.

That interpretation does make sense. Just heating the sauna can take even longer.

No, you would be cooked, but I had a hunch that obviously people already tried to see how long you could stay inside and yes there was a competition in Finland exactly for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sauna_Championships#2010...

I said "was" because 2010 was, in fact, the last edition of the event:

> On 7 August 2010, two competitors were removed from the sauna and brought to the hospital in critical condition after six minutes of 110 °C (230 °F) heat

And one of them died.

> His death was aided by his use of strong painkillers and local anesthetic grease on his skin.

Generally I assume "sauna" will take an hour, or ninety minutes, but the process is pretty much:

1. Have a shower.

2. Sit in the sauna, and throw water on the stones. Stay there for 5-15 minutes, drinking a beer and sometimes listening to music. Depends on the mood what kind of duration I enjoy, and what kind of music I have. If alone music is nice, if with a friend or two then we have silence and conversation instead.

3. Come out and sit on the balcony, to have a little break.

4. If I still feel like it go back to step one, and have a quick shower before going back. Otherwise have a longer shower, and check that the heater is going to shut down soon.

I don't know about you guys but if I started timing my sauna visits, I would get MORE stressed out.

Saunas have hourglasses (usually a multiple of 5 mins)?

Sounds like typical geek stuff you see on any enthousiast forum. You should check the coffee forums.

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