It is the office thermostat war. Now with paperwork. Even Finns have two camps: hard löyly, hot and sharp, and soft löyly, cooler with more steam.

The most famous sauna study in the world followed 2,000 men in Kuopio, eastern Finland, from the 1980s. Their saunas, on average: 76 degrees. By the new standard, that would not count as a sauna. And degrees are not everything: in a small study, a cooler, steamier room was harder on the body than a hot, dry one.

So how hot is too hot? Not a number. It is the moment your body says: enough. Then you go out. Hot is not brave. Soft is not weak.

Hard löyly or soft löyly?

Sources: EN 18164 (2026), public saunas 80-105 °C, via L. Liikkanen, Saunologia (2 Apr 2026). Laukkanen et al. (2018), BMC Medicine: KIHD mean sauna temperature 75.9 °C. Pilch et al. (2019), Medycyna Pracy. Harvia help centre; fi.wikipedia, Sauna.
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