The ten minutes after your session: showering, drying and storing

Everyone knows you are better off not rushing on straight after a session. But what that cooling down moment looks like in practice, minute by minute, is hardly written down anywhere. Can you get in the shower straight away? Does that shower have to be cold? How long do you stay lying down? And what do you do with your blanket afterwards?

This article is the practical side of that story: the concrete routine for the ten minutes right after your session, including wiping down, drying and storing your blanket. If you first want to know why that cooling down moment matters and why an abrupt transition rarely feels good, read why cooling down properly is part of your session. Here we assume you already know that and focus on how to do it.

Why you keep sweating for a while afterwards

The first thing that surprises people: the blanket goes off, and only then does the sweating really start. That is normal. The heat you have absorbed is still in your skin and the layer beneath it, and your body only gets rid of it once the heat source is gone.

That after sweating usually lasts from a few minutes to a quarter of an hour, depending on your setting, the length of your session and how warm the room is. The practical consequence is simple: if you step straight into clean clothes, you will just keep sweating into them. Waiting a little costs you nothing and saves you changing a second time. That is also why the routine below starts with waiting and not with showering.

A lukewarm rinse or a cold plunge: the difference

Between doing nothing and an ice cold shower there is a middle way that many people find more pleasant: a lukewarm rinse. The difference is bigger than it sounds.

With a lukewarm rinse you use water just below your body temperature, or a touch cooler than you would normally find comfortable. The aim is rinsing: getting sweat and salt off your skin so you feel fresh and your skin does not feel sticky. It cools you down slightly without a shock. For most people who have just come out of an infrared blanket, this is the most comfortable choice.

With a cold shower or a cold plunge you use clearly cold water, often twenty degrees or lower. The aim is the sharp transition, and you notice it straight away in your breathing. This suits people who see switching between warm and cold as part of their ritual.

The practical differences at a glance:

• A lukewarm rinse can be done straight after your session, a cold shower is better left until the worst of the after sweating is over
• Lukewarm water lets the sweating ease off gradually, cold water suppresses it temporarily and it can come back afterwards
• After a lukewarm rinse the relaxed, drowsy state often lasts better
• After a cold shower you feel more awake, which can be nice during the day and less nice just before bed

If you have your session in the evening, a lukewarm rinse usually works better than a cold one, simply because cold water makes many people alert. Test it once before you make it a habit.

Why a cold shower straight away is not pleasant for everyone

In classic sauna culture, the cold plunge is part of it. If you grew up with it, it feels natural. Still, it does not work for everyone, and there are two practical reasons for that.

The first is comfort. Your skin is wide open and your blood vessels are dilated, and then suddenly cold water comes along. Some people find that refreshing, others get short of breath or feel tight in the chest. Both reactions are normal and neither is wrong.

The second is timing. Cold water does not stop the after sweating, it postpones it. Your skin cools on the surface while the heat deeper down is still there. If you step into your clothes straight afterwards, you often notice the sweating starts after all ten minutes later. That is the classic moment when people think something is wrong with their blanket.

What we deliberately do not do is claim that a cold shower is good for your immune system, your metabolism or your recovery. If you enjoy it, do it. If you do not enjoy it, skip it. If you have heart or circulation problems, take medication that affects your blood pressure or temperature regulation, or are pregnant, discuss switching quickly between warm and cold with your doctor first. Also read what we write about the sauna and high blood pressure if that applies to you.

A cold shower is a preference, not a prescription. If you do not like it, you do not have to learn to appreciate it.

How long to cool down before you get up

A useful rule of thumb: give yourself five to ten minutes before you get up, and only shower once you notice the sweating easing off.

In practice it looks like this. The session ends, you open the blanket fully or halfway so the heat can escape, and you stay lying down. In those first minutes the sweating often carries on for a while. After that it lessens, your skin cools and your heart rate settles. The moment it gets calm is the moment to sit up.

If your room is cool, this goes faster. If it is warm, it takes longer. Some people put a towel over themselves while cooling down so they do not cool too quickly, others want air on their skin straight away. Both are fine. What you should not do is leave the blanket closed and stay lying there because it is nice and warm, because then you keep absorbing heat and drag out the whole cooling down phase for no reason.

Getting up calmly, in ten seconds

You probably already know you should not jump up in one go. The way you do it is what goes wrong more often, and it literally takes ten seconds:

• First sit on the edge of your bed or sofa and stay there for a moment
• Move your feet and legs a few times
• Only then stand up and wait a moment before you start walking
• If you feel light headed, just sit down again for a while

If you notice this happens more often, even on a lower setting, that is a reason to adjust your temperature or the length of your session. In the temperature guide for your infrared blanket you can read how to choose a setting that suits you.

Drinking, sorted in practice

That you need to drink is not news. Where it goes wrong in practice is where the glass is. Put your water next to your spot before you start, because otherwise you have to get up to fetch it afterwards, and that is exactly the moment when people get up too quickly.

After a warm session, lukewarm water often goes down more easily than ice cold water. Do not drink it all at once: half a glass straight afterwards and the rest spread over the next hour feels better for most people. Best to leave alcohol alone right after a session.

Moisturising right after rinsing

After rinsing, your skin is clean and still slightly damp. That is the handiest moment to apply something, because a cream or lotion spreads more easily then and holds in the moisture that is still there. Pat your skin dry instead of rubbing hard and use something simple and unperfumed.

If your skin feels dry or tight after a number of sessions, that is usually not a sign that something is wrong, but it is a signal to moisturise more consistently and to check whether your setting is too high. Do not crawl back into the blanket for a second round with freshly moisturised skin, because greasy layers and fabric do not go well together. Wait until everything has soaked in.

Wiping, drying and storing the blanket

This is the part that is most often forgotten and that costs the most if you get it wrong. Your blanket has caught your sweat, even if you used a towel or sheet. If you fold it straight away and put it in a cupboard, you trap moisture, and that is exactly how musty smells develop.

The order that works:

• Let the blanket cool down first, folding a warm blanket is never a good idea
• Wipe the inside with a slightly damp cloth and then with a dry cloth
• Leave it open or loosely draped until it is completely dry, often half an hour
• Then fold it loosely along the existing fold lines, not tightly and without sharp creases
• Store it dry, not in a sealed plastic bag

Do not use water that can reach the electronics or the controller connection, and never submerge anything. If you use a towel or a cotton sheet inside the blanket, the inside stays much cleaner and you need to clean it thoroughly less often. Which size and weight work for that, and how long such a towel needs on a hook to dry, is covered in sauna towel: which size, which material and how many to bring. All the details about the blanket itself are in the article on cleaning and maintaining your infrared sauna blanket.

The ten minutes afterwards, step by step

Below is the whole routine in order. It is not a straitjacket, but if you do it this way a few times, you will notice it becomes automatic.

• Minute zero: switch off the blanket and open it fully or halfway, so the heat can escape
• Minute zero to three: stay lying down, keep breathing calmly and let the after sweating run its course
• Minute three: drink half a glass of the water you put out beforehand
• Minute three to five: wipe off the worst of the sweat with a towel and let your skin cool down further
• Minute five: sit up, move your feet and stay seated for a moment
• Minute six: stand up calmly and wait a moment before you start walking
• Minute six to eight: rinse off with lukewarm water, or choose cold if you like that and you are not in a risk group
• Minute eight: pat yourself dry and moisturise while your skin is still slightly damp
• Minute nine: wipe the inside of the blanket and leave it open to dry
• Minute ten: drink the rest of your water and plan something calm, not a sprint to your next appointment

If you want to know how to structure the session itself, read what you do during a session in your infrared blanket.

Showering after an infrared sauna: what is different from a regular sauna

The question about showering after an infrared sauna comes up a lot, and the answer is that the basics are the same but the intensity is usually lower. In a traditional sauna you sit in a room of eighty degrees or more, often with high humidity. In an infrared blanket you lie in a considerably lower ambient temperature and the heat acts more directly on your skin, so you can sweat well without the air around you being boiling hot.

What that means in practice:

• Cooling down usually goes more calmly with a sauna blanket, because you start from a lower load
• With an infrared blanket, a lukewarm rinse is often enough to feel fresh
• Alternating hot and cold over several rounds belongs to the classic sauna, not necessarily to a session at home
• The order stays the same: cool down first, then get up, then shower

If you do like a cold shower after the blanket, that is perfectly fine. Wait until the after sweating is over and build it up, for example by only making the last twenty seconds of your shower cold.

Common mistakes after a session

Most things that go wrong are small and easy to avoid. These are the ones we come across most often:

• Stepping straight into clean clothes while you are still sweating heavily
• Taking an ice cold shower straight away while your body still needs to lose heat
• Leaving the blanket closed and staying in it because it is nice and warm
• Leaving the glass of water in the kitchen, so you get up too quickly after all
• Drinking everything in one go instead of spreading it over the following hour
• Folding the blanket while it is warm and damp and putting it straight in the cupboard
• Not using a towel or sheet during the session, so the inside gets dirty for no reason
• Skipping moisturising when your skin is most receptive to it, right after rinsing
• Getting back into the blanket with freshly moisturised skin
• Thinking a cold shower is compulsory and enjoying the session less because of it

Luxyor Deluxe 310

• Roomy model with a soft inside, nice for cooling down in for a while afterwards
• Adjustable temperature and timer via the remote control
• 60 days to change your mind and a 2 year warranty

View the Deluxe 310

Finally

The ten minutes after your session are not a complicated ritual. Let the heat out, stay lying down for a few minutes until the after sweating eases off, get up calmly, drink something, rinse off lukewarm or cold as you prefer, moisturise and let your blanket dry before you put it away. Do that in order a few times and it becomes second nature.

The only thing we are firm about: a cold shower is a preference, not an obligation, and if you have heart or circulation problems it is wise to talk to your doctor about it first. Want to read more about use, maintenance and safety? Take a look at the knowledge base on sauna blankets.