Anyone Tried an Earthing Blanket?

springlering62
springlering62 Posts: 8,519 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Has anyone tried an earthing blanket? What was your experience?

The idea is very simple. Humans have lost touch with the earth, due to shoes, floors in homes that raise us above it, high rises, etc, and thus the body has no way to drain pent up electrical charges back to the earth, which has its own electrical charge. Pent up charges can allegedly lead to joint pain, insomnia, depression and more.

It sounded very woo woo, but after reading up on it, it’s an absolutely fascinating premise.

You can ground, or “earth”, simply by walking barefoot on earth, grass or sand, or via a conductive method like an earthing blanket, which is simply a silver-coated piece of fabric that you plug into a grounded outlet. The blanket itself isn’t electric, it just drains the charge.

I was so afraid it would be an epic fail and food for future I-told-you-so’s, I left it in the box for a month before I finally tried it last night. I don’t know if I was so pumped up to try it that it’s all in my head, or if this thing really worked. I’m kinda stunned right now. I slept better than I have in years, hopped (!!!) out of bed before I realized I didn’t have my painful morning stagger or two or three, my shoulders had no tension, and the pain in one of my knees was very noticeably reduced.

Even if it’s psychosomatic, I’m totally on board with it, but, as a doubting Thomas, I just don’t know what to say.

Just curious if anyone else has tried one and what your results were?

Replies

  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    edited July 2019
    If it is not all in your head and not quite what is promised there are two plausible explanations for you feeling better today:

    If it feels heavy it could help with sleep. I use a weighted blanket and it helps me.

    If it conducts electricity it will conduct heat energy which could make it cooler while you sleep.

    Also, did you check your outlets to make sure they were actually grounded? Many are not.

  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,153 Member
    The human skin is a pretty fantastic insulator, so I'd be pretty doubtful about the whole thing. Plus, as mentioned, many outlets are not grounded (and even those that are supposed to be can get screwy and be hot on what is supposed to be the ground wire). Could also be basic human psychology at work where the simple fact of making a change reduced stress and made you sleep better. I definitely feel something invigorating about walking barefoot on the grass or sand, but my guess is it's a combination of novelty and an appreciation of being outdoors for once.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,096 Member
    If it really worked as described, wouldn't you have to be exposed to the current from the outlet? (That is, either the conducting material connected to the plug in the outlet is insulated, so there wouldn't be any current flowing between your body and the outlet in either direction, or it isn't insulated, and you would be electrocuted.)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    No experience with that blanket, but the best sleep of my life was in a tent, so no EMFs.

    However, the bestest sleep was in the winter, when the covers were quite heavy.

    If I had to guess I'd say the main factors were the cold and the heavy bedding, not the lack of EMFs. The lack of EMFs didn't help in the summer, when it was hot and humid. And I was walking around barefoot then as well.

    But, you slept well, for whatever reason, so enjoy!
  • Derpes
    Derpes Posts: 2,033 Member
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  • Derpes
    Derpes Posts: 2,033 Member
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  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    snickerscharlie wrote: »
    All the obvious woo-ness aside, just the thought of plugging a metalic blanket into a live socket and then sleeping under it gives me nightmares. :s

    You might say it's shocking! :D

    They would have only connected the ground wire. You would be at a greater risk of being electrocuted by touching any metal appliance.
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    I've never heard of it but it sounds interesting.
  • Dreamwa1ker
    Dreamwa1ker Posts: 196 Member
    Maybe it will help protect any electrical components you might be working on in your sleep from ESD (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antistatic_device), but other than that I highly doubt it has other benefits.

    With how cold they keep it in our lab, I now am wondering if someone could make an ESD blanket instead of the traditional ESD wrist-strap :-)
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    Physicist's assessment: total bull. Why would a bit of excess charge affect your joints?

    In any case, you can discharge yourself completely by touching any grounded surface momentarily. No need for a special product.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    springlering62 wrote: »
    I did verify it was a grounded outlet. The blanket does not plug into the whole socket so is not live. It plugs into the bottom hole only. Although it’s called a “blanket”, it’s a partial sheet that you lay on top of, so it applies no weight to the body.

    I probably did a poor job of explaining it. This is better: https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3265077/#!po=6.81818

    Your body is affected by all kinds of electricity: your heart beat, synapses, cellular level, even static electricity. If skin is such a “great insulator”, we could simply take off our shoes to stand under a tree in a lightning storm. Um, no!

    I find this very, very interesting, because it’s such a simple concept. I’m open to alternative methods that might provide pain relief, as long as they sound reasonably sensible to me, and provided I can research them.

    IMHO anything beats pain pills, and so far I’ve managed to stay ahead of the curve with regular stretching and some vitamins recommended by my GP. If earthing helps, then bully for me. If it doesn’t, then it’s no worse than the carload of unused exercise equipment I took up to goodwill this afternoon. Yoga wheel, anyone? (And for the record, that one was a gift because the original purchaser didn’t like it any better than I did.)

    Well if there is no weight and I doubt you would get any cooling benefit from heat redistribution from beneath you I got nothing.

    I am not going to dig into this because it is of no interest to me. Have fun earthing.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,286 Member
    I'm not concerned about the safety - after all, many people use electric blankets.

    I don't doubt you slept well with it - whether placebo effect or some sort of being more comfortable leading to better sleep thing.

    I always sleep better in winter ( no electric blanket) I just find being snug under the blankets helps me sleep. Plus possibly the nights being longer and darker.

    No electricity grounding stuff though.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    I'm skeptical about this blanket, but it seems easy enough to go outside barefoot if you think you should. I often do go barefoot in my backyard because I like being barefoot.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    I'm skeptical about this blanket, but it seems easy enough to go outside barefoot if you think you should. I often do go barefoot in my backyard because I like being barefoot.

    Me, too. The winter is tough, though. ;)
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    That is true. Barefoot in snow is not my favorite thing!
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
    It sounds like a ground strap used in electronics production. It's intended to divert static buildup in people working with sensitive electronic components so they don't "zap" the parts (discharge static electricity through them and fry the circuits). Anyone working with these parts wears the straps all day every day. I think if there was any benefit in getting your built up static drained somebody would have noticed ling before this.

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