Grounding bed sheets- come on man, is this snake oil?

[robertd]

If the sheet really was grounded, and the light on your night stand had a fault and some metal part was energized, you would get electrocuted. Then you would sleep really well after that.

I remember on ebay a few years ago seeing someone selling wood blocks with a ground wire attached to each block. A set of four was several hundred dollars. You would put them under the legs of your stereo system to ground it. The profit margin looked quite substantial.

 

[Speedskater]

"rek008" you have come to the wrong place.

 

[kwired]

Looks like it just has the ground prong that plugs into the receptacle. I’ve heard of people sensitive to emf, so maybe this is a shield for them?

I mentioned this in comments to an ad for such a thing, though probably on deaf ears, that if this "grounding the body" is something with real benefits, I wouldn't do it through the EGC of a receptacle in my house but rather a direct link to an electrode driven in remote soil. That EGC still has any voltage rise because of voltage drop on the grounded service conductor on it at a minimum.

 

[kwired]

I've read some accounts that put EM Hypersensitivity in the 'plausible' category-- some have moved to that town that bans all EM activity, and their symptoms go away. That might be psychosomatic, but if birds do, bees do it, and even syncopated fleas do it, why can't humans be sensitive to EM fields as well?

An Amish community? Even those still will experience some EM activity in this modern world though.

 

[jaggedben]

An Amish community? Even those still will experience some EM activity in this modern world though.

The entirety of human consciousness is EM activity. The natural world on Earth created electric and magnetic fields, and all wavelengths of EM radiation, before humans had a clue about anything.

 

[kwired]

The entirety of human consciousness is EM activity. The natural world on Earth created electric and magnetic fields, and all wavelengths of EM radiation, before humans had a clue about anything.

So then a cemetery would be an example of a community that has banned EM activity?

 

[ptonsparky]

So then a cemetery would be an example of a community that has banned EM activity?

Not banned, just no one cares.

 

[winnie]

An Amish community? Even those still will experience some EM activity in this modern world though.

A large patch in the US near a radio observatory. RF isn't totally prohibited but is highly restricted.

United States National Radio Quiet Zone - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[winnie]

I've thought for a while (and posted on this forum) that EM hypersensitivity is real yet phychosomatically mediated.

The idea is that a person actually perceives the EM in question (possibly at a not quite conscious level), but this sensation triggers psychosomatic symptoms.

We know that emotional state influences health, and we know that the things we see or hear can influence our emotional state. In this way it is plausible for nearly imperceptible stimuli to influence our bodies, perhaps even more strongly than strong stimuli which we can clearly identify and decide to ignore.

The analogy I give: you are trying to get to sleep, but your neighbor is playing music which you absolutely _hate_. They aren't playing it loudly, in fact when you are walking around your bedroom you can't hear the music over the noise of your footsteps. But when you are laying in bed you can hear the music...or think you can...whenever you move to try to localize the noise, the rustling of your sheets drowns it out. So there you are, laying in bed, wondering why you are imagining this music you hate.....

I don't know if grounding sheets have any real benefit, or if they simply provide placebo benefits, or if they simply separate fools from their money. My mom bought some of the fabric for a project....I might try it out.

I do suspect that if there is any real benefit, it has more to do with equipotential bonding than with earthing.

Jon

 

[letgomywago]

I have an alternate idea. I should push linden jars as a homeopathic solution to build up a negative charge like what is offered by high wind areas and all the fake health benefits it gives. I think I could make a killing

 

[jaggedben]

I've thought for a while (and posted on this forum) that EM hypersensitivity is real yet phychosomatically mediated.
...

I think you mean EMF, for electromagnetic field. Or maybe you need to specify frequencies and amplitude above background. Because electromagnetism is just a fundamental force of the universe that we couldn't exist without. My retina is hypersensitive to certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation and I very much prefer it that way. I might prefer that my skin had more melanin as was thus less sensitive to ultraviolet, but I'm well within normal ranges and it's not a mysterious subject.

I feel the lack of precision around the terminology reflects the misunderstanding of the subject as well the snake-oilism. Not necessarily understanding on your part, personally, but it doesn't edify the discussion.

 

[winnie]

A fair response.

I am specifically speaking about response to power line frequency 'near field' electric and magnetic fields.

'Near field' describes the fields generated by moving charges in conductors, as opposed to electromagnetic radiation where the alternating electric and magnetic fields are tied together.

Jon

 

[ggunn]

The intent of the advertising for this kind of thing is to attempt to shift the burden of proof to their target audience. Prove that it doesn't work; if you can't then maybe it does, and "maybe" is good enough for some, even if critical thinking shows that the probability of the efficacy of the gizmo is vanishingly small. Remember what P.T. Barnum said.

 

[kwired]

The intent of the advertising for this kind of thing is to attempt to shift the burden of proof to their target audience. Prove that it doesn't work; if you can't then maybe it does, and "maybe" is good enough for some, even if critical thinking shows that the probability of the efficacy of the gizmo is vanishingly small. Remember what P.T. Barnum said.

If you think it makes you feel better it probably does, the mind controls a lot of things.

Never mind that tumor you have that keeps growing that you learned to ignore somehow.

 

[ggunn]

In a related story...

There once was (and still may be as far as I know) a New Age Bookstore somewhere near here that reportedly kept a few quartz crystals on a black velvet cloth under bright white lights next to the cash register. If, while waiting in line to check out, you were to pick one of them up to look at it, the cashier would tell you that in picking it up you had "aligned the crystal's aura to your own" and therefore it was not sellable to anyone else, so you would have to pay for it. I assume that they quit doing that after the story aired on a local news broadcast, but I never went there to see.

 

[Fred B]

Wouldn't it be better option to correct wiring issues that is highly indicative of high EM within a space?
Seen a lot of cases of high EM with faulty K&T and other wiring another culprit is NM. Just check your non-contact tester against a properly wired MC or EMT installation and try to get a reading. Had a bad K&T install though that would "ring off" in the middle of the room, not even close to a wire, replaced all K&T and no more "ghosts".

Of course a re-wire several thousand, the useless blanket a few hundred dollar.

 

[BarryO]

Remember, only tinfoil, made with tin, works. Aluminum foil doesn't. Of course The Government has made certain that we can only get aluminum foil.

I'm guessing that the "10% silver fiber" is largely silver colored thread with just a token bit of silver or copper metal.

Tin foil is apparently readily available, but it'll cost ya.

https://www.amazon.com/Sn%E2%89%A599-99-experimental-scientific-research-0-5%C3%97100%C3%971000mm/dp/B07W2Z69H2

 

[BarryO]

I've read some accounts that put EM Hypersensitivity in the 'plausible' category-- some have moved to that town that bans all EM activity, and their symptoms go away. That might be psychosomatic, but if birds do, bees do it, and even syncopated fleas do it, why can't humans be sensitive to EM fields as well?

I'd have to see a controlled, double-blind trial to believe that. Especially since such a thing would be so easy to perform. Get some people who claim they can "feel Wi-Fi" or whatever and have them step into a Faraday cage with a Wi-Fi router that may or may not be on, and the status isn't known to the person conducting the experiment. Does the subject get it right with a statistically significant percentage?

I think it's more likely that people believe this because it makes them feel special, like flat earthers or moon landings deniers. But I'm always open to changing my mind when presented with actual data.

 

[Speedskater]

I'd have to see a controlled, double-blind trial to believe that

There have been many medical D/B tests of these types of beliefs.
All the tests have come back negative.

 

[petersonra]

There have been many medical D/B tests of these types of beliefs.
All the tests have come back negative.

Not all of them, at least not entirely. A fair number have had ambiguous results, which might mean just about anything. The problem is that the sample sizes of these kind of "tests" tend to be very small so they are often not meaningful.

Plus a lot of times they are paid for by people hawking snake oil, so there is likely some bias going on.