Next Time You Don't Get Enough Sleep, Try This Quick Trick To Restore Brain Energy

Lots of people don’t get enough sleep in today’s society due to long working hours, stress, and insomnia. A lack of sleep will make you feel tired and bleary, making it harder for you to focus and concentrate. This can mean you end up wasting the whole day to due low energy levels, but researchers think they may have found a surprising solution.

It appears that knowing that you are not sleeping enough can actually make you feel more lethargic. Thinking that you don’t get enough sleep may make the symptoms of tiredness worse, highlighting the power of the mind over the body.

The study, which was recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology,^[1] tested the effects of “placebo sleep” on participants and found that it is an effective way to reduce tiredness.

But what is placebo sleep? And how can it help you? Here is everything that you need to know about the study.

Placebo Sleep: The Study

Researchers from Colorado College decided to test the effects of “placebo sleep” on participants to see if it would reduce tiredness. They began by asking participants to report how deeply they slept the night before, and then the researchers talked to the participants about the importance of REM sleep.

The researchers said that adults normally spend between 20% and 25% of their sleep in REM sleep, and that people who have less REM sleep tended to have a lower performance on learning tests, whereas people who spend over 25% of their sleep in REM sleep tended to perform better on learning tests.

After this conversation, the participants were hooked up to equipment that they believed read their heart rate, pulse, and brainwave frequency. In reality, the machine only measured their brainwave activity. The participants were told that these readings would show the researchers how much REM sleep they had the night before, but this wasn’t true.

The participants were all told that they either spent 16.2% or 28.7% of their sleep in REM sleep. This also wasn’t true.

The participants then took learning tests that measured their auditory attention and speed of processing. Both of these skills can be affected by sleep deprivation.

The results found that the participants who thought they had an above-average amount of REM sleep performed better on the tests than those who were told that their REM sleep was below average. This fascinating result shows the power of placebo sleep, and now many people are wondering if they can use placebo sleep to improve their energy and concentration levels.

The Benefits Of Placebo Sleep For People Who Don’t Get Enough Sleep

It is clear that placebo sleep can be used to improve cognitive performance. The study found that people who believe that they are well rested are more likely to perform better, even if they don’t get enough sleep. On the other hand, people who think that they are tired and sleep deprived are likely to have reduced cognitive skills.

This study shows the power of the mind. Placebo sleep can be used by anyone to help restore their brain energy, and even their cognitive function in general. This may be useful to people who occasionally don’t get enough sleep due to stress or long working hours, as they can consciously make the effort to think “I did sleep enough last night,” so they are more alert and productive.

However it is important to remember that while placebo sleep is useful for people who struggle to sleep sometimes, it is not recommended for people who suffer from long-term insomnia. If you suffer from insomnia, make sure to speak to your doctor or GP about causes and treatments.

Featured photo credit: Unsplash via pexels.com

Reference

[1]

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National Center for Biotechnology Information: Placebo sleep affects cognitive functioning

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