According to a study conducted by researchers at UCL (University College London), the short-term boost that our brain receives after doing physical exercise persists throughout the following day.
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Previous research has shown that people’s cognitive performance improves in the hours following exercise, but it’s not known how long this benefit lasts.
The studypublished onInternational Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activityfound that, on average, people aged 50 to 83 who have workedmoderate to vigorous physical activity on a given day performed better on memory tests the next day.
At the same time, less time spent sitting and six hours or more sleep were also linked to better scores on memory tests the next day. Deeper (slow-wave) sleep also contributed to memory function, and the research team found that this explained a small part of the link between exercise and better memory for the next day.
The study
The research team looked at data from 76 men and women who wore activity trackers for eight days and took cognitive tests every day.
The researchers looked at data from wrist-worn activity trackers to determine how much time participants spent 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.
When looking at the links between different types of activity and next-day cognitive performance, the research team took into account a wide variety of factors that could have skewed the results, including the amount of moderate or vigorous physical activity the participants did the day of the activity.
The team found that amore moderate or vigorous physical activity than average is linked to better working memory and episodic memory (memory for events) the next day.
More sleep overall has been linked to improved episodic and working memory and psychomotor speed (a measure of how quickly a person detects and responds to the environment). Slower sleep was linked to better episodic memory.
On the contrary, one greater amount of time spent sedentary than usual was linked to worse working memory the following day.
Lead author Dr Mikaela Bloomberg (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care), said:
Our findings suggest that the short-term memory benefits of physical activity may last longer than thought, perhaps into the next day rather than just a few hours later.
Additionally, in the short term, exercise increases blood flow to the brain and stimulates the release of neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine and the dopamine which help a number of cognitive functions.
These neurochemical changes are believed to last up to a few hours after exercise. However, the researchers noted that other exercise-related brain states were longer lasting; for example, evidence suggests that exercise can improve mood for up to 24 hours.
However, we cannot tell from this study whether these short-term improvements in cognitive performance contribute to long-term cognitive health, and while there is plenty of evidence to suggest that physical activity might slow cognitive decline and reduce the risk of dementia, further research is needed.
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