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.
Peter Wilson
Jul 28, 2022 — 8:31 am
People who work in electronics manufacturing are required to wear grounding straps all day long as any buildup of static can damage susceptible microchips. I worked in this industry for over a decade and didn’t notice my health or that of my coworkers to be any better or worse than average. Hypothetically, there’s a large dataset out there in some health insurer’s database that would allow direct analysis between grounders and non-grounders.