Grounding the Body Improves Sleep Quality in Patients with Mild Alzheimer’s Disease: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: Grounding refers to having direct contact with the Earth, such as by walking barefoot or lying on the ground. Research has found that grounding can improve inflammation, free radical damage, blood pressure, sleep quality, pain, stress, mood, and wound healing. However, there has been no research on the effect of utilizing grounding for patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Thus, in this study, we investigated the effectiveness of grounding as a non-pharmacological therapy for treating sleep disturbances, anxiety, and depression in patients with mild AD. Methods: Patients with mild AD were enrolled in the study. The electrochemical analyzer CHI 1205b was employed to check the electrochemical signals at acupoints KI1 and GV16. We used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) to evaluate sleep quality, anxiety, and depression, respectively, at weeks 0 and 12. Results: This 12-week placebo-controlled study enrolled 22 patients, but only 15 patients completed the 12-week intervention and survey. Grounding significantly improved PSQI scores compared to the sham-grounding group (mean ± SD: 0.3 ± 0.7 vs. 3.0 ± 1.9, p = 0.006). The scores on the BAI and BDI-II did not change significantly after grounding in comparison to the sham-grounding group. Conclusion: Grounding can improve sleep quality, but it does not significantly improve anxiety and depression among patients with mild AD.

Cerebrospinal Fluid and Brain Health: Optimized By Grounding

“…Going one-step further and making conductive contact with the earth -touching the surface of the planet directly with the body, even just a fingertip or a toe -grounds our electrical system and provides a host of health benefits to our electrical function. Grounding improves heart rate variability (HRV) [31], increases blood perfusion [32] decreases blood viscosity [33] support muscles contraction during exertion [34][35][36] instantaneously shifts brain wave patterns and reduces ambient stress levels [37] along with supporting deeper, more restorative sleep at night [38], improving sleep quality [39] and optimizing our body's autonomic nervous system function through vagal tone support [40].…”

Grounding and Skin Repair: The Power of DC Energy

“…Studies evaluating grounding and sleep quality found that just grounding for 30 minutes a day significantly improved sleep quality. This was a double blinded placebo based study that found that a 30 minute session was enough to make a statistically significant improvement in quality of sleep in Alzheimers patients [22].…”

Correction: Lin et al. Grounding the Body Improves Sleep Quality in Patients with Mild Alzheimer’s Disease: A Pilot Study. Healthcare 2022, 10, 581

“…The authors would like to make the following corrections to the published paper [ 1 ]. Replacing the Institutional Review Board number 2019011136B0 with 201901136B0 in Section 2.1.…”