Steam sauna and steam room benefits: what the research shows

What counts as a steam sauna

A steam room is cooler and far wetter than a sauna. The portable steam pods in a 2023 study ran at 111°F (44°C) and 99% humidity; the Turkish bath in a 2010 study was 103°F (39.7°C) at 84%. A traditional Finnish sauna runs at 176–212°F with 10–20% humidity (Laukkanen and Kunutsor, 2024). Throwing water on sauna stones raises humidity for a moment, but it doesn't make a sauna a steam room. The full side-by-side is on sauna vs steam room.

The evidence at a glance

Here is every steam study in my sources. Levels follow how we research.

How your body responds

A common line is that steam is gentler than a sauna because it's cooler. The one direct comparison I found says otherwise. In a 2019 study of 10 women aged 22 to 24, three 15-minute rounds in a humid sauna at 138°F and 60% humidity raised core temperature and heart rate more than the same rounds in a dry sauna at 196°F. The dry sauna produced more weight loss, which was water. The authors concluded that the wet sauna "creates a greater burden." Ten people is a small study, but it's the only one, and it doesn't support "gentler."

On heart rhythm, a Turkish bath study of 47 healthy adults found no change in an ECG marker of rhythm risk.

Colds, sinuses and allergies

This is where steam is most often recommended, and where trials have looked hardest. A 2017 Cochrane review of six trials (387 people) found the evidence doesn't show benefit or harm from breathing heated, humidified air for a cold. In a 1994 trial, 20 volunteers infected with a cold virus breathed steam at 108–111°F for two 30-minute sessions; their virus levels were no different from those breathing room-temperature air. And in a UK trial of 871 adults with chronic sinus symptoms, advice to use steam inhalation "had no significant effect" on anything except headache.

These trials used inhalers, not steam rooms, but they test the same idea. For allergies, a 2018 trial of 64 adults found that nasal symptoms improved after four weeks of steam baths, with or without herbs. Without a no-steam group, it can't separate the steam from time or expectation.

Plenty of people find warm, humid air comfortable when they're congested. That's a feeling, not a treatment.

Skin and "detox"

"Opens pores" and "detoxifies skin" are all over spa and bathroom-store pages. I found no study of either in steam rooms. On sweating out toxins in general, a 2012 review found toxic elements in sweat but no evidence that sweating them out helps; more on sauna benefits.

Portable steam saunas at home

The home pod study measured how well pods heat, not what they do for you. In Willmott 2023, 12 men sat for 60 minutes in pods set to 111°F (44°C) and 99% humidity: core temperature peaked at about 100.6°F (38.1°C), heart rate at about 124, and they lost about 0.73 liters of sweat. Five different pods gave consistent results at settings 5 to 9.

The steam tents in our database that publish a maximum list 113°F to 140°F, so they're in the same range as that study. One, the Sharper Image Steam Sauna & Red Light Therapy Portable Spa, is listed with the FDA as a Class II device (product code IMB, "Cabinet, Moist Steam"), with no 510(k). That code covers steam cabinets "intended for medical purposes"; a listing isn't an FDA review of any benefit. Compare tents on portable steam saunas.

Who should skip it

The same cautions apply as for saunas. A review lists unstable angina, a recent heart attack and severe aortic stenosis as reasons to stay out, and warns against alcohol. Blood pressure medicines can make you dizzy on standing (2006 review). MotherToBaby advises that hot tub or sauna use in pregnancy "should be limited", and a study of children found young children's circulation strained by the heat. Details are on sauna safety; this page isn't medical advice (medical disclaimer).

For a steam room at home, a generator in a sealed shower is the usual route: steam saunas.