Sounds, scents, colors − the finishing touches to your sauna experience
Let your mind unwind and take a break − sauna bathing gives our bodies a chance to recover and relax. A sauna session alone is already deeply relaxing, but you can take it to the next level with special extras such as gentle sounds, soothing scents, and colors, which can affect us in many different ways.
Sounds − acoustic bliss in the sauna
When sauna bathing, you want to relax, let your thoughts wander, and leave everyday life behind. That’s easy to do when you can listen to your own music or soothing meditative sounds. It’s a balm for body and soul, especially in a time full of hustle and stress. When you’re lying in the sauna, you finally have time − time to enjoy your music.
To ensure the sounds reach your eardrums with clarity and brilliance, a good music system is essential:
Speakers
You can comfortably listen to your music through either special heat-resistant speakers installed in the sauna or structure-borne sound speakers.
Structure-borne sound speakers are attached to the outside of the sauna, against the wood. The speakers use the sauna as a resonating body and distribute the sound waves evenly throughout the interior. This creates an excellent listening experience, allowing you to fully enjoy your music.
If you have more modest expectations for listening to music in the sauna, you can place a portable waterproof speaker on the sauna floor. Some are quite powerful, and a few models also offer special 360-degree sound.
MP3 player - Bluetooth player
You can conveniently control an MP3 player or radio via Bluetooth using a permanently installed control panel in the sauna.
Another option is a Bluetooth module with a built-in amplifier for playing music from Bluetooth-enabled devices. Music is played using a wireless remote control that you can take into the sauna. This means your Bluetooth device, such as your smartphone, can stay outside the cabin.
Scents − a soothing sauna experience, not just for the nose
We close our eyes and smell a rose, a freshly mown summer meadow, freshly baked wood-fired bread... Our sense of smell awakens memories, making things pass before our mind’s eye through scents and inspiring our imagination.
That’s why it’s a treat for the nose and soul to include scents in a sauna session. We close our eyes and, with the scent of lavender, imagine Provence, with its lush, blooming purple lavender fields swaying in the wind. The scent of mountain pine takes us on an imaginary stroll through a fragrant pine grove, where the sun shines and brings out the aroma of essential oils in the cones.
Scents are easy to incorporate into both a Finnish sauna and a bio sauna.
Finnish sauna
Finnish saunas reach high temperatures of around 70 to 100 degrees, with low humidity. At this heat, the sauna stones on the heater can warm up perfectly, allowing water to evaporate during a sauna infusion. Add a special infusion concentrate to the water, and your sauna session becomes a special wellness experience for the senses. The infusion water, with its different scents, is poured over the sauna stones using a ladle. The steam, infused with essential oils, then spreads evenly throughout the sauna and releases a pleasant aroma. Whether fresh, fruity, spicy, or earthy − you can choose from a variety of scents to suit how you’re feeling. The most common scents in infusion concentrates include spruce needle, eucalyptus, mountain pine, peppermint, and lavender, as well as fruity notes such as lime, lemon, and orange...
Bio sauna
In a bio sauna, you sweat at around 60 °C and about 40% humidity. It’s not quite as hot as a Finnish sauna, but the humidity is higher. That’s why this type of sauna isn’t suitable for infusions. But you don’t have to go without scents. In a bio sauna, the aroma is dispersed in the form of herbs.
There are several ways and devices for adding herbal scents using a bio sauna heater:
- the herbs are diluted in a container of water and hung over the sauna heater. The water heats up. The herbs’ essential oils dissolve in the water, evaporate, and fill the sauna with their wonderful aroma.
- an effective option is a special bio sauna vaporizer heater fitted with an herb sieve, allowing the herbs placed on it to be steamed thoroughly.
The great thing about a bio sauna is that soothing scents from herbs with different effects can make sauna bathing a sensory experience. Depending on the herbs added, the moist, warm air can clear the airways or have a calming effect. Herbs can be used in targeted ways, especially in the cold season, such as eucalyptus to clear a stuffy nose or chamomile blossoms for their soothing effect.
Colors − because the eyes feel it too
Colors affect our psyche and our emotions. Color therapy uses colors in targeted ways to counteract or evoke particular moods.
Light effects and colored lighting in the sauna can therefore also promote our wellbeing and provide support for conditions and complaints with both physical and psychological causes.
Each color has a different effect. You’ve had a stressful day at work, rushing from one appointment to the next from morning to evening, and you’re longing for peace and balance. Calming blue or green are ideal in this case. You’re feeling depressed and sad, for whatever reason − red or a rich orange in the sauna can lift your spirits and help you recharge with energy and joy.
Colors and their effects
Red
The color red stands for vitality and energy. It is the color of love and passion. Red light is stimulating and warming, and enhances wellbeing.
Orange
The color orange symbolizes joy and happiness; it’s a real mood booster. Orange in the sauna creates a cozy atmosphere and a positive outlook on life.
Yellow
The color yellow stands for light and sunshine. Yellow light in the sauna can counteract low moods and depression, radiating joy and optimism.
Violet
Violet is mysterious and mystical, but also calming. It is the color of spirituality and the mind. Violet has a meditative effect, making it ideal as colored sauna lighting to help restore emotional balance.
Blue
Blue is the color of the sky and symbolizes calm, longing, and clarity. Blue feels cool, but can also promote sleep and emotional calm − ideal qualities for deep relaxation in the sauna.
Green
Green is the color of nature, spring, and life. It calms the nerves, promotes harmony, and strengthens the immune system. It relaxes us, allowing our bodies to recover and regenerate.
Colored lighting can be installed in a sauna in various ways. The most common option is LED ceiling color lighting, available in different designs. It is installed in the sauna ceiling, either flush-mounted or with a frame. The smaller version, a round LED color light, can also be installed in an infrared cabin.
Another option is backrest lighting, which creates colored light behind the backrest. This indirect lighting creates a cozy atmosphere and adds to your sense of wellbeing.
Conclusion
It’s common knowledge that sauna bathing is relaxing in itself. You can make the experience even more enjoyable with a wide range of extras, which you can also add to your sauna later on.
Whether you prefer to unwind to gentle sounds, your fresh favorite scent, or a particular color − just give it a try!