My Grounding Sheet Experiment
What are Grounding Sheets?
Grounding sheets, sometimes called earthing sheets, are bed sheets made with conductive materials, such as silver or carbon, that claim to connect your body to the Earth’s natural energy field while you sleep. The intent of the sheets, which plug into your electrical outlet's ground, is to leave you feeling grounded while improving sleep, slowing aging, reducing inflammation, lowering blood pressure, improving mood, accelerating recovery from exercise and illness, enhancing nervous system function, and offering a host of other potential benefits.
One Claim Especially Caught My Attention.
As someone very interested in improving my health and well-being, especially my nervous system-related health, I am willing to experiment with a variety of tools. Regarding the grounding sheets, what really caught my attention was a social media post discussing how they can help prevent Alzheimer’s. Having family members with both dementia and Alzheimer’s, I admit I have a deep fear of finding myself with that condition as I age. In retrospect, I can see that my purchase of the grounding sheets was a fear-based impulse buy.
My Experience with the Sheets.
When my grounding sheet arrived, I was eager to try the product and set myself on the road to avoiding a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s. I washed them as instructed and plugged the cord into the ground of my electrical outlet. Eagerly off to bed I went. As I snuggled in, I could feel the difference between my regular sheets and the grounding sheet. I felt good. I slept well and felt good upon waking. That initial experience did not continue. The second night, I slept restlessly, tossing and turning. The third night, I woke after a couple of hours and could not get back to sleep.
Ground Practice Basics
Grounding practices are techniques that help you feel present and calm.
Breathing techniques, yoga, and meditation help connect the mind and body.
Spending time outdoors, barefoot, tree hugging, swimming in lakes or oceans and forest bathing are grounding.
Visualization of a place, time or memory you find calming can be grounding.
Having pets can be grounding.
Exploring your creativity can be a grounding force.
For some people, listening to music is a grounding experience.
Experiment with a variety of tools and change it up. Most importantly, be aware of your body’s energy when you experiment.
Energetically Out of Sorts.
Though my sleep quality was declining, I was committed to using the sheets. My fear of getting Alzheimer’s or dementia is a powerful motivator. And that fear was making the decisions. I was not being present with what was really happening to me. On the fourth and fifth nights of using the grounding sheets, I was unable to fall asleep. On both occasions, I was tired when I went to bed, but as soon as I got in bed, I was wide awake and energized, my heart felt like it was racing. When I did finally sleep for a couple hours, it was restlessly, with vivid dreams. During the day, I was restless, dizzy, nauseous and out of sorts. I continued to notice my heart racing and felt tremendous surges of emotion for no reason. My brain was foggy and I couldn’t stay focused on anything. I felt energetically out of sorts and very confused.
One More Night.
Before going to bed on night six, I did a little more research on possible side effects from using grounding sheets. According to the information, mild and temporary side effects such as headaches, fatigue, or mood swings can occur as your body adjusts to changes in energy and inflammation levels, and as it releases stored stress. I decided to stick with the process. As I went to bed on the sixth night again, my fatigue evaporated. I felt tremendous surges of energy, and I could not sleep. After a few hours, I abandoned my grounding sheet experiment and sought refuge on the couch. The side effects I had been experiencing did not dissipate.
Recalibrating My Energy.
For the next couple of days, the side effects persisted, especially the nausea, dizziness, and confusion. I tried to talk myself through the energy fluctuations. Finally, I sought assistance from a friend who is well-versed in energetic body work. During the session, I could feel the frenetic energy coursing through my body calm down. After an hour, I was feeling my normal self again. I was grateful to myself for getting help and grateful to know someone who could help. Bodywork can be amazing.
What I Learned.
My experiment with grounding sheets taught me a great deal. Most importantly, fear-based decision-making is not quality decision-making. I went into the whole experiment trying to guarantee myself an outcome that is impossible to guarantee. I also learned there is an important question to ask myself- What NEED will this experiment meet- before I make a purchase. I also need to pay attention to how something is affecting me and respond to what is happening, rather than cling to what I want to happen. In this case, I had not really considered that I spend time every day on grounding activities, and probably did not need additional grounding. I do believe grounding practices are important to health and well-being. Like most things in life, grounding sheets may be a great solution for some people and not for others. The key is finding what works for oneself.
top photo credit: Vladislav Muslakov
lower photo credit: JJ
That is my Breath. That is my Power.
May you find the power of your breath.
