A study by a Colorado College senior found that students who were told they’d gotten a good night’s sleep, even if they hadn’t, performed better on tests that assessed attention and memory skills than students who were told they’d slept poorly, even if they were well rested, according to gazette.com.

“We’ve known about the regular placebo effect for thousands of years, but most of the time we hear about it in drug studies,” said Kristi Erdal, a psychology professor at CC and faculty supervisor for the study. “It’s only been in the last decade or two that people have begun exploring the nontraditional placebo effect, branching out and pushing the envelope to see how far that can take you. I think our mindset affects a lot more of our behavior and our physiology than we ever thought.”

“We’ve known about the regular placebo effect for thousands of years, but most of the time we hear about it in drug studies,” said Kristi Erdal, a psychology professor at CC and faculty supervisor for the study. “It’s only been in the last decade or two that people have begun exploring the nontraditional placebo effect, branching out and pushing the envelope to see how far that can take you. I think our mindset affects a lot more of our behavior and our physiology than we ever thought.”