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Having trouble sleeping well? According to a recent study, just 20 minutes of moderate exercise could give your brain a boost.
Researchers at the University of Portsmouth delved into the impact of sleep, oxygen levels, and physical activity on our cognitive abilities. Their findings revealed that engaging in moderate exercise enhances cognitive performance, irrespective of whether a person is sleep-deprived or dealing with lower oxygen levels.
Joe Costello, from the University’s School of Sport, Health & Exercise Science (SHES), highlighted the significance of their discovery: “Prior research has shown that exercise maintains or enhances cognitive performance even under reduced oxygen levels. However, our study is the first to propose that it also improves cognitive function following both complete and partial sleep deprivation, especially when combined with hypoxia.”
The study, featured in Physiology and Behaviour, comprised two experiments involving 24 participants in total. The initial experiment examined how partial sleep deprivation impacted cognitive abilities, while the second investigated the effects of both total sleep deprivation and hypoxia.
In both experiments, a 20-minute cycling session resulted in an improvement in cognitive performance for all participants.
Costello explained their choice of a moderate exercise program, stating, “We opted for a moderate intensity regimen in line with existing recommendations as we aimed to portray exercise as a positive intervention. Lengthier or more intense exercise might have exacerbated negative outcomes and acted as an additional stressor.”
During the first experiment, individuals were restricted to just five hours of sleep per night across three days. They were tasked with performing seven activities both at rest and while cycling each morning, alongside assessing their sleepiness and mood.
The findings revealed inconsistent impacts of three nights of partial sleep deprivation on executive functions. The study suggested that some individuals might be more resilient to mild or moderate sleep deficits. Nevertheless, irrespective of sleep patterns, moderate-intensity exercise consistently enhanced performance across all tasks.
In the second experiment, participants underwent an entire night without sleep and were then exposed to a hypoxic environment in the University’s Extreme Environment Labs. Surprisingly, even with reduced oxygen levels, exercise continued to bolster cognitive performance.
