Sauna effect on heart rate

Article

• Wearable data study: sauna days correlate with ~3 bpm higher nighttime resting HR
• Within-person design using 59k data points (not 59k participants)
• Effect size is small; direction opposite to exercise-induced long-term HR reduction

Discussion

• @Aurornis: n= is data points not participants — headline misleads on study scale
• @chris_va: methodology too underspecified to pass peer review; too many confounders
• Anecdotes mixed: some report sauna improves sleep, others see no HR change
• @storus: asks why post-COVID he can no longer tolerate Finnish sauna sessions

Discuss on HN