One of the most common objections to grounding is simple: “What if people only notice something because they expect to?”
It is a reasonable question.
Whenever a wellness practice involves something a person can feel, experience, or believe in, expectation can complicate the picture.
If someone expects to sleep better, relax more, or feel different, how do we know expectation is not influencing what they report?
That is why one grounding study published in 2017 is particularly interesting.
The participants could not read about grounding.
They could not believe in grounding.
They could not anticipate what researchers hoped to observe.
They were preterm infants.
THE 2017 STUDY
Researchers Started by Measuring the Electrical Environment
The study was conducted by Rohit Passi, Kim Doheny, Yuri Gordin, Hans Hinssen, and Charles Palmer at Penn State and published in Neonatology.
Its title was: “Electrical Grounding Improves Vagal Tone in Preterm Infants.”
Before looking at what happened during grounding, the researchers measured the electrical environment surrounding the infants.
Background magnetic flux density in the neonatal intensive care unit was below 0.5 milligauss.
Inside the closed incubators, however, researchers measured levels ranging from 1.5 to 12.7 milligauss.
The strength varied depending on where measurements were taken, with higher levels closer to electrical components such as the power supply and control panel.
- NICU background: below 0.5 mG
- Closed incubator: 1.5–12.7 mG
Then They Measured the Infants Themselves
Researchers measured the electrical potential present on the infants' skin relative to electrical ground.
They detected the same basic phenomenon in every infant they measured: a voltage oscillating at 60 Hz.
Sixty hertz is also the frequency of alternating-current electricity used in the United States.
In other words, the surrounding electrical environment was associated with a measurable alternating potential on the surface of the body.
This was not something an infant had to report feeling.
It was measured directly with electrical instrumentation.
THEN CAME THE GROUNDING
The Skin Voltage Fell Almost Immediately
Researchers electrically grounded the infants using a conductive patch electrode connected by wire to a dedicated electrical ground.
They could connect and disconnect the grounding wire without physically handling the infant.
Before grounding, average skin potential was approximately 415 millivolts.
During grounding, it fell to approximately 19 millivolts.
That represented a reduction of more than 95%.
Approximately 415 mV before grounding
↓
Approximately 19 mV while grounded
The researchers reported that the reduction occurred as the electrical ground connection was made.
This part of the study is important because it demonstrates something very straightforward:
Connecting the body to electrical ground produced a large, directly measurable change in body-surface electrical potential.
But the Researchers Did Not Stop at Voltage
They also measured heart-rate variability.
Heart-rate variability, or HRV, describes variation in the timing between individual heartbeats.
Rather than simply measuring heart rate, HRV analysis can be used to examine activity associated with different branches of the autonomic nervous system.
In this study, researchers used the high-frequency component of HRV as their measure of vagal tone.
Vagal tone reflects activity associated with the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system.
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT
Vagal Tone Increased 67% During Grounding
Complete heart-rate-variability measurements were available for 20 infants.
Before grounding, average high-frequency power was 6.59 ms².
During grounding, it increased to 11.00 ms².
That represented a 67% increase in the measure the researchers were using to represent vagal tone.
- Before grounding: 6.59 ms²
- During grounding: 11.00 ms²
- Increase: 67%
But what happened next may be the most interesting part.
They Disconnected the Ground
Grounding was not left in place indefinitely.
Researchers disconnected the wire and continued measuring.
After grounding was removed, high-frequency power decreased to approximately 6.14 ms².
In other words, the vagal-tone measure rose while the infants were connected to ground and then returned approximately to its pre-grounding level after the connection was removed.
BEFORE GROUNDING
6.59 ms²
↓
GROUNDED
11.00 ms²
↓
GROUND REMOVED
6.14 ms²
The authors concluded that the electrical environment can influence autonomic balance.
Why This Study Gets So Much Attention
Grounding research often faces a predictable objection:
“Maybe people just think it is working.”
This study is unusual because that particular explanation is much less applicable to the participants themselves.
A newborn cannot know whether a grounding wire has just been connected.
A newborn cannot expect its skin voltage to fall.
A newborn cannot consciously decide that its heart-rate variability should change because it believes in grounding.
Yet researchers measured electrical and physiological changes as the connection was made and removed.
That does not make this study definitive.
It was a small observational study using a within-subject crossover design, not a large randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial. Measurement artifacts, environmental factors, study design limitations, and other explanations still have to be considered.
But conscious expectation from the participants is not a satisfying explanation for the measurements researchers reported.
What This Study Does Not Tell Us
This distinction matters.
These findings were measured in stable preterm infants in a neonatal intensive care environment.
The study did not test Earthbound.
It did not test grounding mattress pads sold for home use.
It did not establish that the same physiological response occurs in adults.
And it should not be interpreted as evidence that consumer grounding products provide any health benefit to infants.
What the study does provide is a particularly interesting demonstration of a narrower point:
Electrical grounding can produce measurable changes in body-surface voltage, and this study also observed a reversible change in a physiological measurement while the connection was present.
That Is Different From “You Just Believe It Works”
There is still a great deal researchers do not know about grounding.
Different populations, different grounding methods, and different outcomes need to be studied independently.
But this study helps separate two questions that are often confused:
Can grounding measurably change the body's electrical state?
In this experiment, yes. Researchers measured an immediate reduction of approximately 95% in skin voltage.
Can physiological measurements change at the same time?
In this group of preterm infants, the researchers also measured a 67% increase in their marker of vagal tone during grounding, followed by a return toward baseline after grounding stopped.
Those are measurements, not testimonials.
GROUNDING AT HOME
Curious Enough to Experience Grounding for Yourself?
This neonatal study cannot tell us what grounding will do for an adult, and Earthbound was not involved in the research.
But if the electrical side of grounding is what made you curious in the first place, Earthbound offers a simple way for adults to make grounding part of their normal nighttime routine.
The Earthbound Grounding Mattress Pad sits beneath your fitted sheet and connects to the ground port of a properly grounded outlet.
There is no need to decide whether it belongs in your routine after one night.
You have 90 nights to try it in your own home and make that decision based on your own experience.
Try Grounding for 90 Nights
Research can answer specific scientific questions. Your own experience answers a different one: whether grounding is something you want to keep in your routine.
Try the Earthbound Grounding Mattress Pad for 90 nights and decide for yourself.
Research Referenced
Passi R, Doheny KK, Gordin Y, Hinssen H, Palmer C. Electrical Grounding Improves Vagal Tone in Preterm Infants. Neonatology. 2017;112(2):187-192. DOI: 10.1159/000475744. PMID: 28601861.
This study involved preterm infants in a neonatal intensive care setting and should not be generalized to adults. Earthbound products were not used in this research. Nothing on this page should be interpreted as a recommendation to use a consumer grounding product with an infant. Earthbound products are wellness products for adult consumer use and are not medical devices or intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.
