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How are copper pillows great for sleep and antibacterial?

eon

Messages
50
Most supplements I've tried and worked for sleep such as ZMK have copper in it. I'm just curious though how a copper pillow or anything copper that's not a pill would have any effect on me. I could actually feel it working. Is it due to its electrical conductivity?

I've just tried a copper pillow I bought from Walmart. I'm curious if I should use a pillowcase or not for it to work its antibacterial properties? Must it be on my face directly without pillowcase?
 

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,684
Location
Alberta
I'm just curious though how a copper pillow or anything copper that's not a pill would have any effect on me.

Power of suggestion? Placebo effect?

If it has an antibacterial effect, it will only be killing bacteria that directly contact the copper ions in the fabric.
 

eon

Messages
50
None of those at all. I've tried supplemental copper so I know the difference.

Are you saying not to use a pillowcase?
 

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,684
Location
Alberta
Supplemental copper would be doing things other than killing skin bacteria, so it's not the same as copper ions on fabric.

Unless you're extremely sensitive to a certain type of bacteria or fungus living in your pillow, I don't see antibacterial fabric making a significant different. It's like handwashing being touted as protecting you from bacteria. It only reduces the bacterial count partially. An antibacterial pillow would, as a wild guess, kill a few percent of the bacteria on your skin that contacts the pillow, and a few percent of the bacteria in/on the pillow. Marketing would like to convince you that it magically destroys 100% of bacteria in a 3 meter radius, or some such thing.

It's like mosquito zappers: it seems that the only people who say that it lets them sit outdoor without being bothered by mosquitoes are the people who make money selling them. Zapping a few bugs doesn't eliminate them from the area (and the light might draw in a few more).