(연합)
전날 숙면을 취하지 못했더라도 아침에 '잘 잤다'라는 생각을 하는 것만으로도 더 기운이 난다는 연구결과가 나왔다.
23일(현지시간) 영국 인디펜던트 인터넷판은 미국 콜로라도 칼리지의 연구결과를 인용해 수면에도 플라시보 효과(위약효과)가 적용된다고 보도했다.
플라시보 효과란 의학 성분이 없는 약일지라도 환자가 치료 효과에 대한 믿음이 있을 때 실제로 효과가 나타나는 현상을 의미한다.
콜라라도 칼리지 연구팀은 실제 숙면 여부와는 상관없이 ‘잘 잤다’고 믿었던 실험 참가자들이 그렇지 않았던 참가자들보다 기억력, 주의력 및 인지 능력 등에서 더 좋은 성과를 보였다고 밝혔다.
실험을 위해 연구팀은 164명의 학생들에게 수면의 질을 측정하는 기술이 있다고 거짓말을 하고, 한 집단에게는 전날 밤에 숙면을 취했다고 알려주고, 다른 집단에게는 얇은 수면 상태였다고 말했다.
두 집단에게 수면의 질이 인지적 능력에 중요한 역할을 끼친다는 내용의 5분짜리 강연을 들려준 후, 연구팀은 실험 참가자들의 기억력과 주의력을 측정했는데, 스스로 숙면을 취했다고 믿었던 집단이 훨씬 더 좋은 성적을 거뒀다.
연구팀은 수면도 일반적인 플라시보 효과를 따르며, 심리적인 것이 두뇌 활동과 건강에 직접적으로 연관이 있음을 보여준다고 강조했다.
<관련 영문 기사>
Placebo sleep can help your brain work better: study
Just thinking you had a good night’s sleep can improve your cognitive abilities, a new study has suggested.
The study, led by researchers at Colorado College, found that those who were told they’d had a good night’s sleep, even if they hadn’t, outperformed those who were informed they’d slept badly.
The researchers told 164 participants that a new technique, which in fact does not exist, could measure their sleep quality from the night before.
They were randomly assigned to two groups -- “above average”-quality sleep and “below average”-quality sleep -- and then given a 5-minute lecture on how sleep quality can improve cognitive functions.
Regardless of how the participants originally felt about their sleep, those in the “above average” group were told that their sleep quality from the night before had been above average, whereas those in the other group were informed that theirs was below average.
Then, researchers measured the participants’ ability to listen to and process information. The people who were told they had slept well performed far better.
The phenomenon is thought to be a result of the placebo effect, which is normally known to occur in patients who are given inactive drugs and believe they work, leading to improvements in their health.
“These findings supported the hypothesis that mindset can influence cognitive states in both positive and negative directions, suggesting a means of controlling one’s health and cognition,” the research team concluded.
The study on the placebo sleep effect was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.
By Ock Hyun-ju, Intern reporter (
laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)
