After FinTrailO day 2 in Tampere, I went to a sauna. I had read from tourist websites that people normally use sauna in combination with swimming, for example, swim – sauna, or sauna – swim, or even alternate between them.

After I changed my clothes, I first went swimming for about 28 minutes. The lake temperature was 5°C at that time. Afterwards, I entered the sauna. However, not long after I entered the sauna, people thought that I was in trouble and pulled me to the hospital. They said that I was shaking and I was talking nonsense so they thought I was in trouble. I admit that I was really shaking at that time, but I was shaking mildly (i.e. controllable), not as vigorous as when I was in Stockholm. However, I thought that shaking was normal after swimming in such temperature and it was unavoidable. I didn’t know what nonsense I talked, maybe because of language barrier (only Finnish is natively used in Tampere).

I was discharged from hospital after checking I had no problem. I asked what my body temperature was at the moment when I was pulled from the sauna, and it was 35.1°C. However the definition of clinical hypothermia is below 35°C. I then posted the full experience, saying that “my sauna trip was ruined”, to a Facebook group. This made the community concerned as people thought that I was risking my life. They told me that directly entering the sauna after cold water swimming is actually dangerous, and some even told me that I shouldn’t swim for this long in this temperature with my lack of experience. They explained that the people are doing quick dips between saunas, but not for 20+ minutes swims. However I had never seen travel websites telling us not to swim 20+ minutes before using the sauna!