Grounding Our Bodies for Better Sleep

Complexity level:	8
Project cost ($):	70
Time required:	1 day to prepare, 10 days for science fair project
Material availability:	Easily found
Safety concerns:	Basic safety requirements

Hypothesis

Participants will exhibit lower levels of stress, and pain in their bodies, and sleep better when sleeping on a grounded mat.

Overview

Grounding our body

Connecting our bodies to the ground while we are asleep is believed to help our body restore its natural electric balance. Among the benefits of sleeping with the body grounded, are reduced pain, reduced infections, improvement from sleeping disorders and less stress.

Most of the activities taking place inside our bodies are controlled by electrical processes. Our heart beat, brain signals, muscle movements, the digestive system and many more processes taking place inside our body are all regulated by electricity. When we allow ourselves to be isolated from the earth most of the time, abnormal charges start to build up in our bodies and increase the amount of free radicals.

The presence of too many free radicals in our bodies causes heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, asthma and many other health disorders. By grounding our body, we allow the electrons from the ground to flow into our bodies. These electrons will act as a natural form of antioxidant and neutralize the free radicals in our bodies.

Scientific Terms

Grounding, free radicals, antioxidant

Materials

The materials required for this science fair project:
- 10 male participants with known sleep disorders, body aches and stress
- 10 female participants with known sleep disorders, body aches and stress
- 20 grounded mats

Procedure

1. For this science fair project, the independent variable is whether or not a grounded mat was used for sleeping. The dependent variable is the quality of sleep, the level and intensity of body aches and stress of the participants. This is determined by asking the participants to rate how they feel on a scale from 1 to 10. The constants (control variables) are the number of days the participants are required to sleep on the grounded mat.

2. The 20 participants (10 male and 10 female) are first interviewed to find out if they have a history of sleep disorders, body aches and stress. Participants who have a history of the above mentioned problems are selected to participate in this science experiment.

3. The participants are then asked to rate their ailments between 1 to 10 as follows :

a. severity of Sleep disorder s( 1 to10) – 1 means no sleep disorders, 10 almost unable to sleep due to disorders

b. severity of body aches ( 1 to 10) – 1 means no body aches, 10 means constantly severe body aches

c. stress levels ( 1 to 10) – 1 means no stress suffered, 10 means severe stress suffered

4. The ratings provided by the participants are totaled and divided by 10 to obtain the average rating for each gender. The calculated average is recorded in the table given below.

5. Each of the participants is given a grounded mat to sleep on for the next 10 days. After the 10 days, they are asked to rate their conditions once more as described in procedure 3 above.

6. The average rating given by the participants for each gender is calculated once more and recorded in the table given below

Results

The results showed that after sleeping on the grounded mats, both male and the female participants were able to sleep better, experience less body aches and stress.

Condition	Rating (1 to 10) by participant on sleep disorder, body ache and stress level
Male-sleep	Male-ache	Male-stress	Female-sleep	Female-ache	Female-stress
Before grounded mat	8.3	7.5	8.8	8.6	7.8	9.2
After grounded mat	5.3	5.7	5.6	4.9	5.2	5.5

The chart below represents the results of our science project experiment.

body grounding science fair project

Conclusion

The hypothesis that participants will experience lower stress, less body pain and enjoy better sleep using a grounded mat, is proven to be true.

Research has shown that grounding our body while sleeping will help in reducing sleep disorders, pain and stress. It has been found to help improve and normalize hormone production and overall health. By wearing shoes too often, our bodies become electrically insulated from the ground. This could be the reason why diseasse related to stress, the lack of sleep or those which are caused by free radicals, have been on the rise.

Also consider

Repeat the science fair project, this time, testing for cortisol levels in the participant’s saliva.

Try to repeat the science experiment by comparing the health of participants from different age groups.

References

Grounded for inflammation and poor sleep - http://sbholistic.info/http:/sbholistic.com/home/sleep-grounded/

Earthing and grounding - http://www.healthyfellow.com/454/earthing-and-grounding/

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