For years, it was believed that getting more sleep was enough to boost energy, but new research suggests that sleep duration isn’t the key.

Our perception of sleep, or the belief that we’ve had a good night’s sleep, plays a key role. The idea that our way of thinking can affect our physical state is known by the placebo effect, in which a person experiences real physiological changes after an inactive treatment.

It is this principle that researchers have used to explain how the experience of sleep can affect feelings of fatigue.

Studies have shown that positive physical activity can improve the perception of sleep, almost as if we had an extra hour of rest. Nicole Tang, a professor of psychology at the University of Warwick, explained: “When you talk to people about sleep quality, everyone thinks they know exactly what it is,” reports YourTango.

In a follow-up study of 119 adults, participants rated the quality of the previous night every two hours, and more than 90 percent of them changed their rating at least once during the day. Tang noted, “When people engaged in some positive physical activity, their ratings of sleep quality increased.”

Believing we slept poorly makes us feel more tired

In a previous study, Tang and her colleagues analyzed 100 subjects, both good sleepers and poor sleepers, to compare different sleep scenarios. In addition to nocturnal factors, participants also linked sleep quality to “physical activity levels, mood, social skills and ability to think clearly”. The perception changes depending on how we feel and how active we are during the day. Tang cautions that the findings do not offer a universal solution to all sleep problems. However, she points out that if we constantly believe we have slept poorly, we may actually feel even more tired.

In addition to regular physical activity, good habits such as avoiding screens before bed, eating a healthy diet and getting morning light are also recommended.

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Source: prizrenpost