Can't sweat in the sauna? Causes and what to do about it

You are lying in the sauna or in your infrared blanket, the heat is building nicely, and yet your skin stays almost dry. Not being able to sweat in the sauna feels strange, especially when the person next to you is dripping after five minutes. In most cases there is nothing unusual going on. The explanation is often something simple: you have not had enough to drink, the setting is too low, the session is short or your body simply takes a little longer.

This guide calmly goes through the possible causes, from the most common to the rare ones. For each cause you will read how to recognise it and what you can do about it. At the end you will read why little sweat does not mean your session has failed. Sweating feels good to a lot of people, but it is not a grade on your report card.

Sweating says less about your session than you think

There is a stubborn idea that more sweat means it works better. That idea is wrong. Sweat is first and foremost a cooling mechanism. Your body wants to keep its core temperature stable, and when it gets warm, it releases moisture onto your skin. That moisture evaporates, and the evaporation cools you down. So more sweat mainly means your body is cooling harder at that moment, not that anything extra is happening.

On top of that, sweat consists almost entirely of water and salts. There is a small amount of urea and some traces of other substances in it, but the quantity is negligible. That is why sweating is not a form of detox, however often you read that it is. Your kidneys and liver do that work, and they do it all day long, whether you sweat or not.

The useful thing about knowing this: you do not need to worry about how much you sweat. Whether you come out of your blanket soaked or only have a damp forehead, the heat has done the same thing in both cases.

How long does it take to start sweating in the sauna?

This may well be the most asked question on this topic, and the answer is less fixed than people hope. In a traditional sauna of eighty to ninety degrees, many people start sweating after five to ten minutes. In an infrared blanket it usually takes a little longer, often fifteen to thirty minutes, because the blanket itself first has to reach temperature and builds up the heat more gradually. Why that dry air of eighty to ninety degrees is bearable, and what happens as soon as someone pours water on the stones, is explained in what is a Finnish sauna.

That range is wide, and that is normal. When you start sweating depends on your starting temperature, how much you have had to drink, how warm the room is, how you are wrapped up and on your own body. Someone who has just got off their bike sweats almost straight away. Someone who comes in from a draughty room with cold feet sometimes takes half an hour.

So if nothing happens in the first ten minutes, that is not a sign that something is wrong. Give it time. How long a blanket takes to warm up is explained in the article on how long a sauna blanket takes to warm up.

Not being able to sweat in the sauna: the causes at a glance

Below are the causes in order of how often they occur. The first five explain by far the most cases. Go through them from top to bottom, then you will not skip anything and you will usually quickly find the reason that applies to you.

Cause 1: you have not had enough to drink

This is by far the most common reason. Sweat is water, and your body cannot release water that is not there. If you are slightly dehydrated, your body would rather hold on to fluid than give it away. You do feel the heat, you turn red, but your skin stays dry or at most a little clammy.

You can recognise it by a few things: you have drunk little that day, your urine is dark in colour, you are thirsty or have a dry mouth, and you may have a mild headache. A day with lots of coffee, an evening with alcohol or a hard workout without topping up properly can also cause this.

What you can do about it: drink enough water spread over the day, not just right before your session. A glass of water twenty minutes beforehand helps, but a body that has been running dry all day does not refill in a quarter of an hour. Also keep a bottle within reach and drink during and after your session. This is sensible anyway, whether you sweat or not.

Cause 2: the temperature is set too low

The second classic. With an infrared blanket this happens more often than people think, because a low setting feels quite warm while it is not warm enough to really raise your core temperature. You are lying there comfortably, you find it pleasant, and you do not sweat. That is exactly what happens when the setting is chosen too cautiously.

In a traditional sauna the same applies on the lower benches. At the bottom it is noticeably cooler than at the top, sometimes ten to fifteen degrees. If you always sit on the lowest bench and wonder why nothing happens, the explanation is often literally hanging above you.

What you can do about it: raise the setting calmly, in small steps, and give each step a few minutes to do its work. Do not go straight to the highest setting, because that is uncomfortable and unnecessary. In the sauna you can try one bench higher. Which setting suits which situation is covered in detail in the complete temperature guide for the infrared sauna blanket.

Cause 3: your session is too short

Sweating does not come on command. Your body first has to let its core temperature rise a little before it turns on the tap. If your session lasts ten or fifteen minutes, you are sometimes still in the build up phase when you stop. Especially with an infrared blanket that also had to warm up itself, you run out of time.

You recognise this when, right at the moment you got out, you had the feeling it was just starting to feel good. That feeling is right. You were almost there.

What you can do about it: do not count the warm up time of the blanket as session time. Let the blanket reach temperature first and only then start your timer. Build your session up gradually to a length that stays pleasant for you, and listen to your body rather than the clock. How to structure a session well is explained in the article on what you do during a sauna blanket session. If you use a cabin, you will find the same build up in the step by step plan for using an infrared sauna, from warming up to cooling down.

Cause 4: too much, too little or the wrong clothing

Clothing works both ways, and both ways can get in the way of sweating. If you wear thick cotton or several layers of it in your blanket, the fabric soaks up your moisture straight away. You do sweat, but you barely notice it, because everything disappears into the fabric. That feels like not sweating while it is not.

On the other hand, too little coverage can also play a role. Bare skin against the inside of a blanket feels hot sooner, so people set the level lower than needed. They keep it comfortable at a temperature that is too low to really get going. Synthetic sportswear is another story again: it sometimes fits so tightly that the heat spreads unevenly.

What you can do about it: choose thin, airy clothing made of cotton or a cotton blend with long sleeves and long legs. That protects your skin from direct contact with the warm surface and still lets the heat through well. Put a thin towel underneath you instead of a thick one, because a thick towel actually insulates you from the heat.

Cause 5: the room around you is cold

An infrared blanket in a cold bedroom or a draughty attic has a hard time. Heat leaks away on the outside, and your head, neck and shoulders usually stick out of the blanket. If they are cold, your overall heat balance stays low and sweating starts later or not at all. You feel warm below and cold above.

The same applies to a lesser extent to a sauna whose door keeps opening. Every time someone walks in or out, the temperature drops, and your body responds by turning the cooling back down.

What you can do about it: use your blanket in a room at room temperature and close the windows. Put an extra throw over your upper body or use a pillow under your head, so your neck is not lying in a draught. Close the blanket neatly around your body, so the heat stays inside instead of escaping along the edges.

Cause 6: getting used to it and fitness

This is a cause that surprises many people. Your sweat response is partly trainable. People who regularly spend time in the heat, whether through exercise or sauna visits, generally start sweating sooner and more easily. The body learns to switch on its cooling faster. People who rarely spend time in the heat take longer.

That is why you may notice almost nothing during the first weeks with a new blanket, and then after a month or two suddenly get going much faster at exactly the same setting. Nothing has changed about the device. Something has changed about you.

What you can do about it: nothing special, apart from regularity. A few calm sessions a week do more than one long session a month. Do not expect it to be different straight away, and above all do not compare yourself with others. The differences between people are huge.

More sweat does not mean it works better. Sweat is water and salt, and mainly a way to cool down.

Cause 7: caffeine, alcohol and what you ate that day

Coffee, tea, energy drinks and alcohol all affect your fluid balance. Alcohol especially, because it makes you urinate more and so lose more fluid than you take in. If you lie down in your blanket the day after a party, you start with a deficit that is hard to make up.

Caffeine is less dramatic than often thought, but three or four cups of coffee on a day when you otherwise drink little water does add up. A salty meal just beforehand can also play a part, as can a heavy meal that sends your blood flow mainly to your digestion.

What you can do about it: do not plan your session right after alcohol and do not lie down on a full stomach. Wait an hour or an hour and a half after a big meal. Drink water alongside your coffee on the day you plan a session. Simple things, but together they make quite a difference.

Cause 8: age plays a part

As people get older, the way the body handles heat changes. Sweat glands generally become somewhat less active and the response to heat often starts later. That is a normal part of ageing and not a problem in itself. It does explain why someone of seventy stays drier in the same room than someone of twenty five.

The sense of thirst also becomes less clear at an older age. That means the first cause on this list, not having had enough to drink, plays a role more often without you realising it.

What you can do about it: drink at set times rather than when you feel thirsty, and keep sessions a little shorter and milder if the heat feels heavier. Build up calmly. There is no reason at all to try to meet a standard that belongs to someone else.

Cause 9: medication can reduce sweating

Some medicines can affect how much you sweat. That applies, for example, to certain allergy medicines, some medicines for bladder problems, certain medicines for mental health conditions and a few medicines for nausea. Water tablets also change your fluid balance and with it, indirectly, your sweat response.

Important: this is not a list to judge yourself by, and certainly not a reason to change anything about your medication. It is only meant so you know it can play a part. Whether that is the case for you, and what it means, is a question for your doctor or pharmacist. They know your situation and can say something sensible about it.

What you can do about it: if you take medication and notice that you hardly sweat in the heat, simply bring it up during a regular visit to your doctor or pharmacy. Ask straight away whether there is anything you should watch out for in the heat. Never change anything about your medication yourself.

Cause 10: rare conditions in which sweating is reduced

There are conditions in which the sweat glands, or the nerves that control them, work less well. Reduced sweating has a medical name, and it can occur with various conditions, including some skin conditions, some nerve conditions and certain metabolic problems. This is rare, and it is almost never the explanation when someone simply sweats less than others in the sauna.

The pattern that stands out with these kinds of causes is that it is not limited to the sauna. You then also do not sweat during exercise, on a hot summer day or with a fever. It often comes with other symptoms, such as overheating, dizziness or dry skin all over the body.

What you can do about it: if you recognise that broader pattern, do not try to puzzle it out yourself, and do not diagnose yourself based on what you read online. Make an appointment with your doctor and describe what you have noticed. That is the right place for this question. In the meantime: if you quickly overheat or get dizzy in the heat, keep sessions short and mild.

Cause 11: you do sweat, but you do not notice it

This one deserves its own spot, because it happens more often than people realise. In a steam room or a humid sauna, water vapour condenses on your skin. What you feel running off you is then partly not sweat. The other way round, in a dry environment sweat evaporates so quickly that your skin hardly feels wet while you are definitely releasing moisture.

In an infrared blanket something similar happens with your clothing and the towel underneath you. They absorb the moisture before you notice it. If you come out of your session and your shirt is damp while your skin felt dry, you have sweated without realising it.

What you can do about it: afterwards, feel your clothing and your towel rather than just your skin. If you like, weigh yourself before and after: that difference is almost entirely fluid loss.

Quick overview of cause and solution

What you notice	Often the cause	What you do
Skin stays dry, but you are thirsty	Not enough to drink	Drink water spread over the day, also during the session
Pleasantly warm, nothing else	Setting too low	Raise it step by step and wait a few minutes at each step
It was just starting to feel good	Session too short	Do not count the warm up time and build up the length calmly
Clothing damp, skin dry	Fabric absorbs the moisture	Use thin cotton clothing and a thin towel
Warm below, cold above	Cold room or draught	Windows closed, throw over the upper body, close the blanket properly
No sweat during exercise or heat either	Broader pattern	Discuss it with your doctor, do not try to figure it out yourself

When sweating less is perfectly fine

Now the most important part of this article. If you have checked everything above, you drink enough, your setting is right, your session lasts long enough, and you still sweat little: that is fine. Really. There is no target value and there is no minimum.

People differ enormously in the number of active sweat glands and in how quickly they respond. Two people lying side by side at exactly the same setting can look completely different. That says nothing about which of the two gets more out of it. It says something about their skin.

Besides, as mentioned, sweat is mainly water and salt. That makes it a poor measure of anything, except how much your body is cooling at that moment. What you usually do notice after a calm session in the heat is a relaxed feeling and warm muscles, and that has nothing to do with the amount of moisture on your skin.

So: do not use sweat as a yardstick. Use how you feel during and after the session instead. Does it feel pleasant, is the heat comfortable, and are you relaxed afterwards? Then you are doing it right, however dry your skin is. And if it feels unpleasant or you get dizzy, stop, no matter how much you sweat.

What you should not do

A few things people try in order to force sweating, and which you are better off avoiding.

• Setting the level far above what is comfortable. That is not pleasant and not necessary
• Making sessions much longer than you can handle just to see sweat
• Deliberately drinking less, thinking the body will then work harder. This backfires, because without fluid you can actually sweat less
• Wrapping yourself in plastic or foil. That blocks heat release and is uncomfortable
• Drawing your own conclusions about your health based on how much you sweat

Building up calmly always gets you more than forcing it. More practical pointers can be found in the article with tips to get the most out of your infrared sauna blanket.

When to check with your doctor

There are situations where it is wise to take your question to a doctor rather than to a guide like this one. For example when you notice that you no longer sweat anywhere, so not during exercise or on a hot day either. Or when you quickly overheat, get dizzy or feel sick in the heat. If the reduced sweating started suddenly or coincides with other symptoms or with a new medicine, that is also a good reason to talk about it.

That is no cause for alarm, and usually the answer is reassuring. It is simply the right place for that question, because only someone who knows your situation can say something about it. This guide cannot do that and does not try to.

Finally

Not sweating in the sauna or in an infrared blanket almost always has an ordinary explanation. Not enough to drink, a setting that is too low, a session that is too short, thick clothing or a cold room together explain most cases. Getting used to it, caffeine and alcohol, age and medication can play a part. Rare conditions do exist, but they show a broader pattern than just staying dry in the heat, and that question belongs with your doctor.

And if you have checked everything and you still sweat little, let it go. Sweat is water and salt, not a performance meter. Want to read more? Take a look at the knowledge base on infrared sauna blankets or take your time browsing the infrared sauna blankets from Luxyor. With us you always have 60 days to change your mind and a 2 year warranty, so you can try out at your own pace what suits you.