The 'Sleep Placebo': Believing is Half the Battle

For most of us, the last time we got a decent night's rest was (yawn)... well, we can't really remember. And unless everyone's popping Ambien or other sleep aids, most of us probably aren't getting the recommended 7 to 8 hours of shut-eye.

Yet what if we simply pretended that we had? A recent study shows that simply believing we received adequate rest is half the battle. According to researchers from Colorado College, they tested the "placebo sleep" affect on undergraduates.  First they were required report how deeply they slept the night before the study, based on a scale of one to 10. Researchers then gave participants a quick five-minute lesson regarding sleep's effect on cognitive function that told them it was just background information for the study. This informational session included research on REM cycles and how less sleep could lower performance on learning tests, particularly for those who had less time spent in REM cycles.

All participants had their pulses, heart rate and brainwave frequency measured, and were told that these measurements would allow researchers to determine how much REM sleep they had received the night before, according to The Alatlanic. However, this is a false statement.

One of the experimenters pretended to calculate that each participant received either 16.2 percent REM sleep or 28.7 percent REM sleep the previous evening. After getting their reading, participants took a test that measures "auditory attention and speed of processing, skills most affected by sleep deprivation," according to the study.

A second experiment repeated these conditions, while controlling for experiment bias.

Results showed that those who were told they had above-average REM sleep typically performed better on tests than those who were told their REM sleep was below average.

Researchers believe these results hold important implications for the brain and daily function.

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found via the Journal of Experimental Psychology.