The improvement of sleep through grounding: customer stories and scientific research

Of all the reasons people take up grounding, sleep is by far the one mentioned most. That makes sense: it is the only part of the day when you get seven or eight uninterrupted hours of contact without any effort at all. Below is what has been measured during those hours, and what customers write to us about it.

What happens at night

Cortisol is the hormone that wakes you in the morning and that ought to be low at night. When that rhythm slips, you notice it in your sleep: you take longer to drop off, you wake at three, or you get up as though you never slept.

In 2004 Ghaly and Teplitz had twelve people with sleep complaints sleep grounded for eight weeks. Their cortisol fell at night and its release across the day returned to the natural 24-hour rhythm. The participants themselves also reported better sleep and less pain. The study appeared in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

More studies, with year and number of participants, are in scientific evidence for grounding.

What customers write

• Li: "After our very first night it was immediately noticeable that we had slept better, deeper and with longer REM sleep. Even though we still woke up because of illness, we both fell asleep much faster and I felt fitter and more rested. My smartwatch also showed I had longer REM sleep from that first night. Now, several nights on, it is holding up and we are very happy and would recommend it to anyone!" (on the sheet)
• Dylan: "I have been sleeping on this pillowcase for a week now, and in the dark months I always struggle to get out of bed. I wake up much more easily now, and it has an effect on muscle soreness too, that is definitely less." (on the pillowcase)
• Britney: "I was extremely sceptical, but I am completely surprised by the result. At the moment I use this mat not only for my exercises but I sleep on it.. I have much less pain.. I can hardly believe it. Thank you so much!" (on the yoga mat)

These are personal experiences, not research findings. They also vary: one person notices something the first night, for another it takes a week or two. What you can reasonably expect is covered in what you can feel and expect.

Why the bed in particular

During the day, sustained contact barely happens. You get up, walk away, sit on a chair with clothing in between. In bed it is different: you are there for hours at a stretch, your skin touches the surface by itself, and you have to do nothing and remember nothing.

Two things determine how it goes. The contact: directly on your skin conducts best, but pyjamas, an ordinary fitted sheet over your earthing sheet, or a duvet cover still conducts perfectly well, because your skin always gives off a little moisture. Plenty of people choose that deliberately, because a mat can feel cool and because you perspire at night; such a layer is easier to wash, and washed more often, than the earthing product itself. Only through a thick duvet or a fleece blanket does little happen.

And washing: fabric softener leaves a film on the fibres that works against conductivity, so leave it out.

Which product for the night

There are four routes for the bed. The sheet goes under your fitted sheet and covers the full width. The fitted sheet replaces your own. The sleeping mat lies under your lower body and is the choice if you only want to ground part of the bed. And the pillowcase is the smallest step: you change nothing about your bed.

Which size you need depends on the width of your mattress and whether the room has an earthed socket. At the bottom of the shop page there is a guide that works through that in a few short questions. If two of you sleep in the same bed and want to share one connection, the splitter divides the cable between two products.

If the bedroom has no earth pin in its socket, it still works, with an earthing rod or an alligator clip. Both are set out step by step in grounding without an earthed socket.

Earthle does not sell medical devices and does not replace treatment. If you have health complaints, take medication, are pregnant or have an implant, talk to your doctor first. You have thirty days to change your mind, so you can simply try it for a few weeks and see for yourself what it does to your nights.