A new study shows that thinking we got a good night's sleep can actually increase our performance too. The researchers essentially ran fake brain scans on everyone in the study, which made the participants think the investigators could tell how much REM sleep they had gotten the night before, even though the scientists really had no way of knowing. So they tricked the two groups into thinking they had either slept 16.7 percent of the night in the last, REM phase of sleep or 28.7 percent, almost twice as much. And surprise surprise, the group that thought they got much more sleep did better on a test of skills most affected by sleep deprivation than the group that thought they got less. Study: Believing You've Slept Well, Even if You Haven't, Improves Performance http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/study-believing-you-ve-slept-well-even-if-you-haven-t-improves-performance/283305/ REM sleep http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/sleep-101 Subscribe to The Daily Conversation null Facebook http://www.facebook.com/thedailyconversation Google+ https://plus.google.com/100134925804523235350/posts Twitter http://www.twitter.com/thedailyconvo