Back in April, Ben Greenfield did a podcast titled My New #1 Hack For Zapping Inflammation, Increasing Deep Sleep & Recovering Faster—Earthing (The Most Important Health Discovery Ever?). I’ve always been highly skeptical that standing or sleeping on a grounded mat or sheet would have any health benefit. Yet, I decided to go down the rabbit hole on this topic.
After several hours, I assigned a 10% chance that getting and using a grounding product would result in a measurable improvement to my health. Normally, I would discount an idea such as this, but on Amazon, I found a grounding pillowcase for less than $30 with lots of positive reviews. Since I regularly purchase supplements for $30 to try ideas, I figured it would be a small investment to answer this question.
With the Oura ring, I don’t need to rely on my subjective feelings. I can see real data. I can measure my sleep scores with and without the grounded pillowcase.
I performed a few tests of various durations. And the data is clear. The grounded pillowcase did nothing to improve my sleep. Worthless. But at least I know.
Earthing is the product-free version where someone puts their feet on the ground to get the health benefits that are all covered in the podcast. Because I wanted to test the pillowcase in isolation, I did not engage in any Earthing during this test period.
What are your thoughts on grounding products and earthing?
Jim
Jun 28, 2021 — 8:37 am
Hi MAS.
Interesting post. My initial reaction is to be skeptical of grounding. However, these days, after reading this post, I’ve been trying to keep an open mind.
https://www.raptitude.com/2021/03/a-lot-of-the-woo-woo-probably-works/
MAS
Jun 28, 2021 — 8:53 am
@Jim – Agreed. What I liked about my test is that I had an impartial observer (my Oura Ring). I wanted it to work, so I was biased in that direction, but the data was clear that it had no impact.
I know that a lot of bro-science that started in the gyms can take 10 or 20 years to become mainstream proven facts. Too long of a time frame for most competitors to wait to see if the science validates their theories.
With the rise of wearables perhaps we can get our own answers quicker.