Grounding: safe and effective for your health
Grounding, or earthing, is a safe and effective practice that connects you with the earth and offers numerous health benefits, such as improved sleep and reduced stress. By using modern grounding products, which can be easily connected to a grounded outlet, you restore the natural balance in your body. Our products are safe, thanks to a built-in resistance of 100k ohms that prevents electrical risks. User experiences and scientific studies confirm the positive effects of grounding, similar to walking barefoot on grass. Discover how you can integrate the healing power of the earth into your life with our products!
Putting a cable into a socket and then lying on it all night: that is the question almost everyone asks before starting. Fair enough. Below is exactly what sits inside that plug, what happens if your socket is wired wrongly, and how to check for yourself that it is right.
What sits inside the plug
The plug on an earthing product has only one pin that does anything: the earth pin. The two live openings are not used. Your product is therefore connected to nothing that supplies voltage; it hangs on the earth conductor alone, which runs through the house to the earth electrode outside.
The plug also contains a 100,000 ohm resistor in series with the cable. It makes sure that even in a situation that is not right, no meaningful current can flow through the cable. It is the same kind of safeguard as in an antistatic wrist strap at an electronics workbench.
If your socket is wired wrongly
It happens, especially in older houses where somebody once had a go themselves. That scenario is exactly what the resistor is for. If voltage were accidentally present on the earth conductor, 100,000 ohms limits the current to a level at which you feel nothing.
If you want certainty, a socket tester costs a few euros at the hardware shop. You plug it in and three lights tell you straight away whether the wiring is correct. That is worth knowing anyway, quite apart from grounding.
The same as barefoot on the grass
Electrically, an earthing product makes exactly the same connection as standing barefoot on damp grass. In both cases the voltage between you and the ground equalises. The difference is purely convenience: one of them works at three in the morning in January, the other does not.
Research on grounding, inflammation and sleep is collected in PubMed Central and in this review article. What was measured in each study, with year and number of participants, is in scientific evidence for grounding.
Skin contact and clothing
Direct contact works best: bare feet, forearms or your back on the conductive surface. But a layer in between is perfectly fine. Pyjamas, an ordinary fitted sheet over the sheet or the sleeping mat, or a duvet cover still conducts, because your skin always gives off a little moisture.
Plenty of people choose that deliberately. Vegan leather can feel cool, and a fitted sheet over it takes that away. You perspire at night, and an ordinary sheet or cover is easier to wash, and washed more often, than the earthing product itself, so the product stays in good condition longer. And if you want to build up gently, such a layer dampens the contact without removing it; you can simply take it off again later if you want to.
The effect does drop as the fabric gets thicker and drier. Through a thin cotton sheet or pyjamas it works fine; through a thick fleece blanket, very little happens.
For washing there is one rule that counts: no fabric softener. It leaves a film on the fibres that works against conductivity. Otherwise just follow the care instructions on the label.
How long
Thirty to forty minutes a day is enough to notice something. Sleep is therefore the practical starting point: there you get seven or eight hours without any effort at all.
Measure it yourself
You do not have to take anything on trust. Set a multimeter to AC volts, hold one probe between your fingers and put the other into the soil outside. Read the value, then connect your earthing product, lie on it and read again. From a few hundred millivolts to almost nothing: your setup works.
You can check the 100,000 ohm resistor with the same meter, between the earth pin and the conductive surface of your product.
When to check with your doctor first
If you take blood thinners, discuss it with your doctor before you start, and never change your dose yourself. The same applies if you are pregnant, take medication or have an implant. Earthle does not sell medical devices and does not replace treatment.
Where to start
For the night the usual choices are the sheet, the sleeping mat, or as the smallest step the pillowcase; for the day, the desk mat. Which size you need is what the guide at the bottom of the shop page asks you in a few short steps.
If you have no earthed socket, it works through an earthing rod in the garden or an alligator clip on the radiator pipe. Both are set out step by step in grounding without an earthed socket. And what to expect in the first few weeks is in what you can feel and expect.
