The study examined how different intensities of physical activity, sedentary behaviors, and sleep characteristics influence performance in areas such as attention, memory, psychomotor speed, and executive function. Exercise not only benefits cognition immediately, but can also offer advantages that last until the next day, especially when accompanied by good quality sleep.
Declining cognitive function is a central concern for the quality of life of older adults, as it affects their autonomy and general well-being. Thus, finding ways to preserve cognition in the daily routine is essential, especially for those facing cognitive impairment or conditions such as dementia.
Among the factors that can positively influence cognitive function, physical activity emerges as an important ally. Studies show that physically active people tend to experience slower cognitive decline and have a lower risk of developing dementia.
In addition to the long-term benefits, physical exercise can also improve cognitive performance in the short term, with effects visible minutes or hours after exercise.
This positive impact is related to increased blood flow to the brain and the release of neurotransmitters. On the other hand, a sedentary lifestyle is associated with lower cognitive performance.
While it is known that physical activity offers acute benefits for cognition, it is unclear whether these effects persist into the next day. Early research using momentary assessments suggests that physical exercise can improve same-day cognitive performance, but the impact on the next day remains largely unknown, especially in adults.
Sleep also plays a crucial role in cognitive performance. Physical activity can improve sleep quality by prolonging slow-wave sleep (SWS) and delaying the onset of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
Each of these sleep stages has specific associations with different types of memory, with SWS being important for declarative memory and REM sleep for non-declarative memory.
To investigate this relationship, researchers analyzed data from 76 British adults aged 50 to 83. For eight days, participants wore accelerometers to measure their physical activity and sleep patterns, while completing daily online cognitive tests.
The study examined how different intensities of physical activity, sedentary behaviors and sleep characteristics influence performance in areas such as attention, memory, psychomotor speed and executive function.
The results showed that an additional 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) the previous day was associated with significant improvements in episodic and working memory.
In contrast, each additional 30 minutes of sedentary behavior resulted in a slight reduction in working memory performance. These benefits of physical activity occurred independently of sleep characteristics.
When sleep was considered, sleeping for at least six hours was shown to be beneficial for episodic memory and psychomotor speed the following day. Furthermore, an extra 30 minutes of REM sleep was associated with improved attention, while a similar increase in SWS led to gains in episodic memory.
These findings highlight that the combination of regular physical activity and adequate sleep, especially with more time in SWS, may help preserve cognitive function and mitigate the impact of aging on memory.
Exercise not only benefits cognition immediately, but may also offer benefits that last into the next day, especially when accompanied by good quality sleep.
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Associations of accelerometer-measured physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep with next-day cognitive performance in older adults: a micro-longitudinal study.
Mikaela Bloomberg, Laura Brocklebank, Aiden Doherty, Mark Hamer & Andrew Steptoe
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 21, 133 (2024).
Abstract:
Previous studies suggest short-term cognitive benefits of physical activity occurring minutes to hours after exercise. Whether these benefits persist the following day and the role of sleep is unclear. We examined associations of accelerometer-assessed physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep with next-day cognitive performance in older adults. British adults aged 50-83 years (N = 76) without evidence of cognitive impairment or dementia wore accelerometers for eight days, and took daily cognitive tests of attention, memory, psychomotor speed, executive function, and processing speed. Physical behaviour (time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity [MVPA], light physical activity [LPA], and sedentary behaviour [SB]) and sleep characteristics (overnight sleep duration, time spent in rapid eye movement [REM] sleep and slow wave sleep [SWS]) were extracted from accelerometers, with sleep stages derived using a novel polysomnography-validated machine learning algorithm. We used linear mixed models to examine associations of physical activity and sleep with next-day cognitive performance, after accounting for habitual physical activity and sleep patterns during the study period and other temporal and contextual factors. An additional 30 min of MVPA on the previous day was associated with episodic memory scores 0.15 standard deviations (SD; 95% confidence interval = 0.01 to 0.29; p = 0.03) higher and working memory scores 0.16 SD (0.03 to 0.28; p = 0.01) higher. Each 30-min increase in SB was associated with working memory scores 0.05 SD (0.00 to 0.09) lower (p = 0.03); adjustment for sleep characteristics on the previous night did not substantively change these results. Independent of MVPA on the previous day, sleep duration ≥ 6 h (compared with < 6 h) on the previous night was associated with episodic memory scores 0.60 SD (0.16 to 1.03) higher (p = 0.008) and psychomotor speed 0.34 SD (0.04 to 0.65) faster (p = 0.03). Each 30-min increase in REM sleep on the previous night was associated with 0.13 SD (0.00 to 0.25) higher attention scores (p = 0.04); a 30-min increase in SWS was associated with 0.17 SD (0.05 to 0.29) higher episodic memory scores (p = 0.008). Memory benefits of MVPA may persist for 24 h; longer sleep duration, particularly more time spent in SWS, could independently contribute to these benefits.
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