A sauna is a room or cabin heated to a temperature well above a comfortable indoor one, used for short sessions of deliberate heat exposure. The word covers several quite different machines: a wood-lined cabin with a rock-topped heater, a cabin with radiant panels, a tiled room fed by a steam generator, and a zip-up blanket that heats you rather than a room. They share a purpose and very little else, which is why the price range is so wide.
The four types sold for home use
A traditional sauna heats air and a bed of rocks with an electric or wood-burning heater, reaching the highest air temperatures of any type, and you can raise the humidity in bursts by ladling water over the rocks. An infrared sauna uses radiant panels that warm your body directly, so the cabin runs much cooler while feeling intense. A steam room runs cooler still but at full humidity, produced by a generator and contained by a sealed, tiled enclosure. A sauna blanket is a padded sleeve with infrared elements that you lie inside, with no room involved at all.
What actually separates them
Three things: the temperature they reach, what they demand of the building, and what they cost to install. A traditional cabin reaches the highest heat and, above a certain heater size, needs a dedicated higher-voltage circuit. An infrared cabin usually runs from an ordinary outlet and assembles without trades. A steam room is a construction project with plumbing, waterproofing and drainage. A blanket needs nothing but an outlet and a cupboard. Choosing between them is mostly choosing how much of the house you are willing to change.
How a session usually works
In practice a session is short and repeated rather than long: you heat, you come out, you cool down, and many people repeat that two or three times, often with a cold shower or a cold plunge between rounds. That pattern is where the contrast setup of a sauna next to a cold tub comes from. How hot and how long is a personal setting within each type's range rather than a rule, and anyone with a heart, blood pressure or pregnancy related question should put it to a clinician rather than to a retailer.
Questions people ask about what is a sauna
What is the difference between a sauna and a steam room?
A sauna is hot and dry, lined with wood, heated by a heater and rocks. A steam room is much cooler but fully humid, sealed and tiled, fed by a steam generator. They are different installations, not settings.
Is an infrared sauna a real sauna?
It is a different way of producing the effect. It heats your body with radiant panels rather than heating the air, so the cabin runs cooler than a traditional one while still producing a strong sweat.
What does a home sauna cost?
It depends entirely on type. A blanket is the cheapest by a wide margin, a plug-in infrared cabin sits in the middle, and a traditional cabin or a built steam room is the most expensive once the electrical or plumbing work is counted.