Short-term cognitive boost from exercise may last for 24 hours, suggests study

Medical Xpress / Univ College London / Intrnl Jrnl of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity ^ | Dec. 10, 2024 | Mikaela Bloomberg et al

[ConservativeMind]

The short-term boost our brains get after we do exercise persists throughout the following day, suggests a study.

The study found that, on average, people aged 50 to 83 who did more moderate to vigorous physical activity than usual on a given day did better in memory tests the day after.

More deep (slow-wave) sleep also contributed to memory function, and the research team found this accounted for a small portion of the link between exercise and better next-day memory.

The research team looked at data from 76 men and women who wore activity trackers for eight days and took cognitive tests each day.

For the study, the researchers looked at data from wrist-worn activity trackers to determine how much time participants spent being sedentary, doing light physical activity, and doing moderate or vigorous physical activity. They also quantified sleep duration and time spent in lighter (rapid eye movement, or REM) sleep and deeper, slow-wave sleep.

In looking at the links between different types of activity and next-day cognitive performance, the research team adjusted for a wide variety of factors.

They also accounted for participants' average levels of activity and sleep quality across the eight days they were tracked, as participants who are habitually more active and typically have higher-quality sleep perform better in cognitive tests.

The team found that more moderate or vigorous physical activity compared to a person's average was linked to better working memory and episodic memory (memory of events) the next day.

More sleep overall was linked to improved episodic and working memory and psychomotor speed (a measure of how quickly a person detects and responds to the environment). More slow-wave sleep was linked to better episodic memory.

Conversely, more time spent being sedentary than usual was linked to worse working memory the next day.

[ConservativeMind]

You have 24 hours of benefit from moderate physical activity.

[ConservativeMind]

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[pollywog]

very interesting. I’m 83 and suffer terribly with arthritis. This makes exercise very very difficult as the pain is debilitating. So what to do... as I really need to keep my mind alert also.

[ConservativeMind]

Is your arthritis osteo or rheumatoid?

[sauropod]

bkmk