Thanks for the feedback!
The timer is remainder of a planned feature that we had to drop due to the jam's time limit: A larger, more fragmented world where you have to unlock new "Sauna Respawn Points" in order to be able to reach further. Similar to the respawn location mechanic in Minit. It quickly became obvious that the timer doesn't add anything in the current state, but we left it in for the jam version so that multiple people could play the game together on one PC and switch controls after each run.
I just uploaded an updated version that includes settings for disabling the timer and head bobbing and also introduces some hints in the form of diary reminders, spotlights and tooltips for clues.