By John Salak –
Exercise provides all sorts of short- and long-term benefits from losing weight to relieving stress, building heart health, controlling weight, improving mood and sleep hygiene, developing energy, reducing hypertension and enhancing brain health, as exercise boosts cognitive function.
It has also been known to build brain strength and cognitive performance, according to various research studies. What hasn’t been established, until now, is how long these brain boosts last. A study reports 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 their memory tests the day after. Less time spent sitting and six hours or more of sleep were also linked to better scores in memory tests the next day.
More deep sleep also contributed to memory function. The research team, in fact, found this accounted for a small portion of the link between exercise and better next-day memory.
The findings were based on data from 76 men and women who wore activity trackers for eight days and took cognitive tests each day.
“Our findings suggest that the short-term memory benefits of physical activity may last longer than previously thought, possibly to the next day instead of just a few hours after exercise. Getting more sleep, particularly deep sleep, seems to add to this memory improvement,” reported lead author Dr. Mikaela Bloomberg of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care. “Moderate or vigorous activity means anything that gets your heart rate up—this could be brisk walking, dancing or walking up a few flights of stairs. It doesn’t have to be a structured exercise.
The study’s size was admittedly small, so researchers stressed the need to replicate it on a larger scale to verify the results.”
Regardless of the length of the brain boost, short-term exercise increases blood flow to the brain, which stimulates the release of neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine and dopamine which help a range of cognitive functions.
Generally, these neurochemical changes are believed to last up to a few hours after exercise. Yet these researchers found that other brain states linked to exercise were more long-lasting. Evidence suggests exercise can enhance mood for up to 24 hours.
“Among older adults, maintaining cognitive function is important for good quality of life, well-being and independence,” said co-author Professor Andrew Steptoe. “It’s therefore helpful to identify factors that can affect cognitive health on a day-to-day basis. This study provides evidence that the immediate cognitive benefits of exercise may last longer than we thought. It also suggests that good sleep quality contributes to cognitive performance separately.
The findings have limitations. The researchers, for example, noted the study cannot determine whether these short-term boosts to cognitive performance contribute to longer-term cognitive health. This uncertainty, however, doesn’t undermine previous research that suggests physical activity might slow cognitive decline and reduce dementia risk.
The research was developed from data from wrist-worn activity trackers that determined 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 sleep and deeper, slow-wave sleep.
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 the next day. More sleep overall was linked to improved episodic and working memory and psychomotor speed. 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.
