Earthing mats like this Hooga Grounding Mat sell online for somewhere between $50 and $100.Amazon/Supplied
As I sat outside a coffee shop earlier this year on a tall barstool, my feet resting on its base, it occurred to me that, once again, I was doing wellness wrong. An “earther” – not to be confused with a flat-earther, which is something else – would have told me to plant my feet on the ground to recharge.
An earther, naturally, is someone who practices earthing: the exercise of keeping a body part, such as bare feet or hands, connected with the ground – whether on the pavement or out in nature – for extended periods of time. Earthers believe that absorbing terra firma’s negative electrical current helps stabilize the body’s internal bioelectric charge and can supposedly reduce inflammation and improve sleep. Earthing, also called grounding, has been embraced as a primal means to reconnect with nature, kind of like jumping in a lake.
The language around the discipline alone is enough to make debunkers bristle: one study refers to earthing as the “battery for all planetary life.” But recently, earthing has been thrust into the wellness zeitgeist by health and fitness influencers such as Ten Years Younger, The Minimalists, and Andrew Huberman, who are trying out the practice. Joshua Fields Millburn of The Minimalists even called it a valuable addition to his life. Earthing mats – pieces of fabric connected by cables to a grounded power outlet, on which people stand barefoot indoors – sell in kits for several hundreds of dollars. While standing on them may not feel any different than having your feet planted on the floor, the mats are marketed as an alternative to spending time outdoors. But is there any real merit to a practice that sounds almost too primitive, not to mention esoteric, to actually work?
Susan Albers, a clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic who specializes in mindfulness, says the body of research around the effects of earthing is still shallow. Some preliminary studies suggests that it helps in reducing inflammation, and one small, randomized controlled study found it reduced muscle soreness after exercise in healthy people; other findings suggested that a regular grounding practice improved sleep by regulating levels of stress hormones. But those studies are more than a decade old.
Earthing mats sell online for somewhere between $50 and $100. There are also plug-in wrist and ankle bands that claim to offer the same benefits; and you can buy a whole kit for $400 that includes a sleeping mat, a standing mat, a pillow cover, and patches that stick on the body and connect to a grounded wall outlet. If your mind just conjured Keanu Reeves in a trench coat, you are not alone.
Dr. Albers says although there is a lack of clinical rigour around earthing, she frequently hears cases of individuals who sleep better and feel less stressed after adopting the practice. That could just be a placebo effect, but she sees it as a useful stand-in for outdoor walks or mindfulness sessions, which are proven to have plenty of physical and mental-health benefits, for those who cannot easily go outside during the day.
Dr. Albers calls it a simple, low-stakes health experiment.
“That being said, I don’t think of it as magic or a cure-all method – and, before investing your money in it, ask yourself if you could instead just benefit from more walks outside.”
