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In the old days, getting grounded was a bad thing. It meant hanging out alone in your room without any toys, television, or friends. Now, a different kind of grounding is being hailed as a fix-all solution for everything that ails you. The social internet is alive with reviews and recommendations hailing the alleged benefits of grounding yourself to the earth.
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Searches for “grounding sheets,” “earthing sheets,” and related topics have risen sharply in recent weeks and interest in these products is swelling. In the meantime, a wide range of earthing and grounding products have hit the market, claiming to improve your sleep, fix your back pain, and generally make you feel better. And they do it, ostensibly, with a combination of common fabrics and conductive metal fibers made of silver, stainless steel, or carbon.
Like many other forms of “natural medicine” grounding sheets and related products misrepresent some foundational scientific truths to give the illusion of legitimacy. While the physical process of grounding has legitimate uses in electrical systems, there’s no compelling evidence that contact with the ground (either directly or through something like grounding sheets) has any impact on human health, good or bad. Before you pull out your wallet, lets talk about electrical grounding, grounding sheets, and whether they’re worth your hard-earned cash.
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What is ordinary (electrical) grounding?
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Grounding is one of the most important safety measures used in electrical systems (not to mention an important precaution before working on computers) like the ones running through our homes. It works by burying a metal plate or rod directly into the earth and connecting with a heavy wire to the rest of the system. It provides a pathway for electricity to flow back to the earth, instead of into you, in the event of an electrical surplus.
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In some respects, you can think of electricity flowing through the power grid like water flowing through pipes. The current flows along two separate wires, with a negative charge along one and a positive charge along the other. That’s why every bit of electrical work has “hot” and “neutral” wires. When an electrical system is flowing, the current wants to reach equilibrium by returning to the ground. Most of the time, that happens through the neutral wire, but if something goes wrong and there’s an electrical “leak,” it will take the shortest path, potentially burning your house down in the process.
The ground gives electricity an easier path by maintaining constant contact with the earth. As long as your electrical system is successfully grounded, you’ll always have a way to safely reach equilibrium. Grounding is a crucial part of a healthy electrical system, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has the same effect on the human body.
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What is grounding or earthing?
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The concept of grounding or earthing as a wellness technique relies on a few primary assumptions. The first is that contact with the earth impacts electrical systems, the second is that modern life separates us from contact with the earth, and the last is that lack of contact with the ground causes pain, illness, poor sleep, and more.
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Today, many people live in houses, wrap themselves in layers of clothing, and wear shoes with rubber soles. We wear sunglasses, use climate control, and spray pesticides (giving bees their own sleeping problems) to keep critters away. Unless you’re the outdoorsy type, much of your life is an attempt to keep the outside world at a distance. Proponents of grounding conclude that separation from the planet’s electrical flow leads to negative health effects which can be resolved by reconnecting with the planet.
The first and second assumptions are true. The rubber in our shoes does insulate us from electrical currents the same way the rubber in your car tires insulates you from a lightning strike, and a person can ground themselves using a conductive system connected to the earth, the same way you ground your electrical outlets, or you can do it by going outside and touching the earth. The third assumption is where we run into trouble. There’s no convincing evidence that grounding is beneficial to humans and there’s not even a clear explanation for how it could impact health outside nebulous language about Earth’s electrons.
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What’s the difference between grounding and earthing?
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If you’ve spent any time looking into the topic, you’ve probably noticed the terms “grounding” and “earthing” being used seemingly interchangeably. While these words have specific meanings in the worlds of electronics and engineering, they get a little muddied in the wellness world. Still, even among proponents, the terms actually do have distinct meanings.
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Just like tortoises and turtles, all earthing is grounding but not all grounding is earthing. Earthing describes the specific act of direct physical contact with the ground. You can do it by walking barefoot in the dirt or on the beach, by swimming in natural bodies of water, or rolling around in the autumn leaves. Anything that gets you in touch with the planet will do the job. Grounding can be achieved that way, but it can also refer to the use of grounding devices, like grounding sheets, which connect you to the earth’s electrical flow by way of your home’s electrical system. If you really want to ground yourself, it’s totally possible, it just probably won’t do anything.
Neither of the above terms should be confused with the other use of “grounding” which refers to grounding oneself mentally. This sort of grounding is a mindfulness technique, similar to meditation, which helps to center someone in their environment and minimize symptoms of anxiety. Unlike the alleged benefits of earthing, meditation and mindfulness techniques do have some supporting evidence.
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Who is Clint Ober, the progenitor of earthing?
Various cultures across the planet and across time have associated the earth with health and other benefits. But the modern grounding movement has a relatively recent origin, beginning with a young Clint Ober, circa 1950-something.
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Ober grew up on a Montana farm, a life which demands constant contact with the earth. As a child, a friend’s mother casually remarked that wearing shoes would make you sick and his sister was allegedly cured of yellow fever by spending several days in a pit outside. Over the course of a lifetime, Ober reports noticing the positive effects of earthing with the people around him. These disconnected experiences would form the foundation of a bizarre logical leap later in life.
After a career installing cable and producing early digital content for computers, Ober reportedly had a personal health scare which led to his retirement and a new fascination. Ober took what he learned about the importance of grounding electrical systems and confusingly applied it to the wholly different field of human biology. For the last few decades he’s been espousing an unfounded worldview based on electrical connection with the planet and developing products like grounding sheets, based on that worldview.
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How grounding sheets claim to work
The simplest way to ground yourself is to walk outside and touch some dirt — a rock, tree, or any other part of the planet will do, too. Direct contact between your body and the planet is the surest way to balance any stray electrons you’ve collected or lost throughout the day, but there are other ways. If you want a connection with the planet in the comfort of your own home, grounding sheets are designed for just that purpose.
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The electrical system in your home, office, or elsewhere is already grounded. Every outlet has a direct connection to the earth courtesy of the ground wire. Grounding sheets take advantage of that existing system and extend it to your body. Typically, grounding sheets are made of cotton or some other natural fabric, mixed with small metal fibers made of silver or some other conductive material. Much like an electric blanket, grounding sheets have an electrical cable at one end which connects to the grounding wire of an electrical outlet.
The result is a through-line from the planet to your skin. By placing the sheets atop your body while you sleep, electrical currents can travel between the earth and your body by way of your home’s electrical system. Assuming everything is set up correctly, grounding sheets should ground you as well as going outside. Grounding yourself is possible, it’s just not clear there’s any (factual) reason to do it.
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Other grounding options: socks, shoes, mats, and more
While grounding sheets are among the most popular options for making a casual connection with the ground, consumers can find a wide range of products designed to conduct electrical currents. Sheets take care of the sleeping hours but there are plenty of other devices claiming to keep you grounded around the clock.
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You can find floor mats for standing on while doing the dishes or for parking underneath your work desk. There’s also smaller universal mats intended for draping over a shoulder or across the back of a chair.
When it comes to sleep, sheets are just the beginning. You can round out your bedding with sleep mats, blankets, mattress covers, and pillow cases, all of which are capable of connecting to an electrical ground. There are smaller mats for placing on chairs and even some for your car seats, so you can stay grounded on the go. Of course, your car is insulated by its tires, so your travel grounding mat connects to the frame of your car instead of the earth.
There are even shoes, usually the bane of grounding proponents, made with conductive material to maintain electrical connection to the earth even when worn. Electrically speaking, it’s like being barefoot without being barefoot. If you can dream it, and there’s a way to plug it in, someone will sell it to you as a way to stay grounded.
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Is grounding dangerous?
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Whether grounding has any quantifiable health benefits remains a matter of debate, but it’s probably not dangerous. Anytime you’re connecting something to an electrical system and then making contact with that device, especially consistent contact, there’s a certain amount of risk. That said, well-made grounding products are manufactured with safety in mind. As long as you’re using them as directed, they’re probably no more dangerous than a heating pad or electric blanket. Many grounding products come with a tool to test the connections on your intended electrical outlet and ensure a proper ground before you plug them in.
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However, the safest way to ground yourself is probably to just go outside. It also brings the added benefit of vitamin D from sunlight and a little exercise, even if you’re only walking out into your backyard. Of course, no activity is totally free of risk. There are some obvious health benefits to shoes, like protecting your feet from injury while you walk around. We didn’t invent shoes for nothing and if you decide to ditch them in favor of feeling the grass between your toes, tread softly. In addition to stepping on something sharp, walking barefoot comes with increased risk of insect stings and allergic reactions to plant life. All told, grounding is about as dangerous as it is effective, which is to say not very.
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Does grounding or earthing work?
As you shuffle to and fro, you lose a small number of electrons (relatively speaking) from the surface of your body. It’s the same phenomenon which causes a buildup of static electricity when you walk on carpet in socked feet. Grounding works, in as much as it will balance your body’s electrical charge with that of the earth, but there’s little reliable evidence of any therapeutic benefit as a result of that electrical exchange.
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A review of the scientific literature reveals a small collection of earthing studies carried out in recent years, many of which report a measurable effect. However, the studies commonly cited in other popular articles on the topic often involve folks like James L. Oschman, President of Nature’s Own Research Association (NORA), an organization focused on alternative medicine. The express stated purpose of NORA is to support research into commercial EMF shielding and modulation devices and other alternative medicines.
Earthing studies typically have small sample sizes of just a few dozen participants. In fairness to proponents, some studies do show an apparent beneficial effect on sleep, inflammation, pain, and more when comparing a test group using grounding sheets against a control group. However, a reliable grounding study should feature a large sample size with a diversity of participants, be free of conflicts, and stand up to peer review. It should also suggest a testable mechanism for impacting human health.
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What we’ve seen so far doesn’t meet that standard — the current research is preliminary, minimal, and features frequent conflicts of interest.
Do grounding sheets work?
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Again, it really depends on what you mean by work. There’s no real argument over whether contact with the ground has an influence on the body’s electrical charge. In that respect, it works. Likewise, grounding sheets and related products are capable of electrically grounding you, provided they are manufactured and used correctly. All of that said, the data surrounding grounding sheets is not compelling.
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A typical grounding study employs the use of grounding sheets and looks for any measurable health effect. While some studies have demonstrated an effect, they are largely conducted by people within the grounding or earthing movement and rely on small sample sizes which may not be representative of the wider population. They generally break the participants into two groups, a test group and a control group. The test group sleeps with grounding sheets while the control group is given sheets that aren’t connected to any electrical system. The experimental design is a good starting point, but the quality of the data just doesn’t pass the sniff test.
Before we can say whether grounding works one way or another, more high quality research is needed. In the interim, it’s probably safe to treat grounding sheets like any other alternative medicine, with a healthy dose of skepticism.
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Is grounding just a placebo effect?
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There’s little debate over the benefits of getting outside. Feeling the sun on your face and the breeze on your skin, hearing the birds chirp and watching the leaves sway, all of that is good for your mental and physical health. With that in mind, getting out and touching the ground will probably be good for you, but the mechanism of electron transfer from the earth and its resulting supposed positive impact on the body isn’t supported by the current research. At least some of the reported effect is likely the result of placebo, and that could explain some of the alleged benefits.
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Some grounding studies have shown an effect, and some of the better studies even employed the use of dummy wires to account for the placebo effect. However, attempts to replicate those results and confirm the effect have been mixed. At best, we can say that the effects of grounding are possibly beneficial, but definitely inconsistent.
The history of science is filled with seemingly unhinged hypotheses which later turned out to be true. Just try explaining relativity with a straight face. It’s totally possible that some unknown mechanism will be discovered which confirms and explains the alleged benefits of earthing (and a whole host of other alternative therapies besides) but until and unless that happens, there’s no reason to think grounding sheets are worthwhile. The best we can say today is that the results are mixed and any driving factors are unknown.
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Conclusion: Are grounding sheets worth the hype?
At the end of the day, health decisions are very personal and often complicated. Many of us are dealing with an uncooperative healthcare system and looking for answers anywhere we can find them. Considering the pressures people are up against when dealing with a chronic illness or chronic pain, many folks are looking for simpler alternatives.
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There are anecdotal reports that grounding, either through direct contact with the earth or through the use of grounding sheets and similar products, have improved sleep while reducing pain, stress, anxiety, and a wide range of other symptoms. However, you should know that anecdotes are about the best you can hope for when it comes to grounding.
The reported health benefits of spending time in the wild world have a long and storied history. Rather than being a newfangled health fad, grounding is very likely just the latest in a long line of naturopathic remedies promoted by health gurus and wellness companies. Despite those personal and often emotional stories, there’s no compelling scientific evidence one way or another. Your mileage may vary and you’re probably better off just adding a little sunshine time to your schedule. If you decide to give grounding sheets a try, remember to follow all safety instructions and to keep your expectations tempered.
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