What Is Float Therapy? A Beginner’s Guide to Floating

If you’ve heard about float therapy but have never experienced it, you may be wondering what actually happens during a float and why people choose to spend time floating in skin temperature Epsom salt water.

Float therapy—sometimes called sensory deprivation therapy or flotation therapy—is a relaxation experience designed to reduce many of the external sensations your brain and body process throughout the day.

At Blissful Relaxation Float Spa in Louisville, Kentucky, the experience takes place in a spacious private float room filled with warm water and a large amount of Epsom salt. The dense saltwater allows your body to float effortlessly without having to actively keep yourself above the surface.
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The goal is simple: create an environment with no light, no sound, and no gravity pressing against your body, giving you an opportunity to disconnect from everyday stimulation and deeply relax.

​How Does Float Therapy Work?

A float room contains shallow water saturated with Epsom salt, which is magnesium sulfate.
The high concentration of salt dramatically increases the water's buoyancy. When you lie back, the water supports your body and keeps you floating at the surface with virtually no effort.

The water is maintained near skin temperature. Once you become still, the boundary between your body and the water can become much less noticeable.
With the lights off and the room quiet, there is also very little visual or auditory information competing for your attention.

Instead of your body constantly responding to gravity, noise, screens, conversations, and other stimulation, floating creates an unusually simple environment where you can simply be still.

Is Float Therapy the Same as a Sensory Deprivation Tank?

The terms float therapy, sensory deprivation tank, float tank, float pod, and even float orb are often used interchangeably when people search for floating.

But the equipment itself can be very different.
Some float centers use enclosed pods/orbs or smaller tanks. At Blissful Relaxation, we chose a different approach.

Our guests float in private 8-foot × 7-foot king-sized Ocean Float Rooms rather than traditional pods/orbs. You can stand up inside the room, and the larger space can make floating more comfortable for people who are concerned about smaller spaces.
You are also always in control of your environment.


Why Is There So Much Salt in a Float Room?

The salt is what makes effortless floating possible.
People sometimes compare floating to swimming in the Dead Sea because of the extreme buoyancy created by highly concentrated saltwater.  Our float rooms are much more buoyant than the Dead Sea.

In our float rooms you don't have to know how to swim or tread water. You simply lie back and allow the water to support you.

This removal of pressure from weight-bearing areas of the body is one of the characteristics that makes floating feel so incredibly different from relaxing in a bathtub, swimming pool, or hot tub.

What Does Floating Feel Like?

Everyone's experience is a little different.
During the first few minutes, you may notice the novelty of the environment—the saltwater, the quiet, and the sensation of your body being completely supported.

As you settle in, there is less to pay attention to.
Many people describe becoming increasingly unaware of where their body ends and the water begins. Others use their float to meditate, think, decompress, or simply enjoy being somewhere that doesn't require anything from them.

And yes, some people fall asleep.  If that's what your body/mind needs take advantage of it.
Because the saltwater is extremely buoyant, your body remains supported at the surface.

What Are the Potential Benefits of Float Therapy?

People seek out float therapy for many reasons, including relaxation, recovery, meditation, stress management, and simply getting away from constant stimulation just to name a few.

Scientific research has also examined flotation-based reduced environmental stimulation therapy—often called Floatation-REST—for areas such as stress, anxiety, pain, and physiological relaxation.

Research into floating continues, so we think it is important to distinguish between promising research and guarantees. Float therapy is a wellness experience and isn't intended to diagnose, treat, or cure a medical condition although many people find relief.

What we can tell you is that floating provides something impossible to find in everyday life: an environment specifically designed to minimize outside stimulation and allow you to rest.

What Should You Expect During Your First Float?

At Blissful Relaxation, your float experience is private.

Before entering the float room, you'll shower while calming music is playing inside the float room. You then enter the skin temperature saltwater and lie back, allowing the buoyancy of the water to support you.

You begin with the light on. The music changes to more peaceful sounds while you get comfortable and after a few minutes it fades away and the light fades off.

Once the room is dark and quiet, there isn't anything you're required to accomplish.
There is no correct way to float.  If for any reason you want the light back on there is a light button right inside the tank with you that you can use at any time.

Some guests meditate. Some think. Some completely lose track of time. Others simply enjoy doing absolutely nothing for a while.  Just let go.
After your float, you'll shower again to rinse away the salt.

Why We Chose Private Ocean Float Rooms

When we created Blissful Relaxation, we didn't want to simply install the cheapest float equipment available.
We wanted to create the best float experience available on Earth.

That's why we chose spacious king-sized Ocean Float Rooms measuring approximately 8 feet by 7 feet.  These set the standard for luxury and were imported from England.  Ocean Float Rooms invented these large spacious float rooms.  None like these even existed.  It was only pods/orbs before they broke the mold and made these luxurious float rooms.

Blissful Relaxation has four king-sized Ocean Float Rooms, giving our guests considerably more room than they may expect when they first hear the words “float tank.”

The float suites are private, and we've designed the surrounding environment around the float experience as well.

Even the flooring in our float suites and hallway was intentionally selected: we use specialized Takiron Pathways flooring imported from Japan.

These details may not be the first thing you think about when deciding where to float, but they're part of our philosophy that the quality of the entire environment matters immensely.

Float Therapy in Louisville, KentuckyBlissful Relaxation opened in Louisville in 2018, but our journey into the float industry began years earlier.

In 2016, we attended Float Tank Solutions apprenticeship training and learned from people who helped shape the modern float industry. We purchased our building later that year and began the process of creating the float center that would eventually become Blissful Relaxation.

Since opening, more than 52,000 guests have floated with us.

Louisville also became an important destination for the wider float industry when the 2023 Float Conference came to the city. Blissful Relaxation was one of three Louisville float centers that helped host the conference, which brought more than 1,000 attendees to Louisville.

During the conference, Blissful Relaxation was the only float center selected for an exclusive professional Art of the Float photo shoot inside one of our Ocean Float Rooms for use in promoting floating throughout the industry.

Today, we're proud to remain a family-owned and operated Louisville business and the city's longest continuously operating float spa.

Is Float Therapy Worth Trying?

Reading about floating can explain how it works, but it is difficult to fully describe what the experience feels like.

Most of us spend nearly every waking moment receiving information—phones, televisions, conversations, music, traffic, notifications, work, family responsibilities, and the physical sensation of moving against gravity.

A float room removes as much of that as possible.
For a little while, there is nowhere you need to go and nothing you need to accomplish.

It's just you, peace, and quiet.

That's float therapy.

Experience Float Therapy at Blissful RelaxationIf you're looking for float therapy in Louisville, Kentucky, we invite you to experience one of our private king-sized Ocean Float Rooms for yourself.

Blissful Relaxation Float Spa is family owned and operated and has been providing Louisville with private float therapy since 2018.
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No light. No sound. No gravity. Just float.