2023-12-03 09:00:00
New research has explored how sleep, oxygen levels and exercise affect our ability to perform mental tasks and has found that 20 minutes of moderate exercise can compensate for a poor night’s sleep, as published in the journal ‘Physiology and Behavior. ‘. Sleep is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and adults are recommended between seven and nine hours a night. However, recent studies indicate that 40% of the world’s population does not get enough sleep. Consequences of chronic sleep deprivation include cardiovascular disease, obesity, neurodegenerative disorders, and depression. In the short term, lack of sleep can reduce cognitive performance, affecting attention span, judgment, and emotional state. The study led by the University of Portsmouth (United Kingdom) has found that cognitive performance improves during a session of moderate intensity exercise, regardless of the person’s sleep state or their oxygen levels. “We know from existing research that exercise improves or maintains our cognitive performance, even when oxygen levels are reduced, but this is the first study to suggest that it also improves CP after total and partial sleep deprivation, and when combines with hypoxia – highlights Dr Joe Costello, from the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences (SHES) – The findings add significantly to what we know about the relationship between exercise and these stress factors , and helps reinforce the message that movement is medicine for the body and brain.” The research included two experiments, each with 12 participants (24 in total). The first looked at the impact of partial sleep deprivation on a person’s cognitive performance, and the second looked at the impact of complete sleep deprivation and hypoxia. In both, all participants experienced an improvement in cognitive performance after a 20-minute cycling session. “Because exercise was a positive intervention, we decided to use a moderate intensity program, as recommended in the existing literature,” recalls Dr. Costello. “If the exercise was longer or harder, it could have amplified the negative results and become a stressor in itself. In the first experiment, individuals could only sleep five hours a night for three days. Each morning they were assigned seven tasks that they had to perform at rest and then while pedaling. They were also asked to rate their sleepiness and mood before completing the tasks. The results showed that the effects of three nights of partial sleep on executive functions were inconsistent. According to the article, this could be because some people are more resistant to a mild or moderate sleep deficit. However, regardless of sleep status, moderate-intensity exercise improved performance on all tasks. In the second experiment, participants spent an entire night without sleep and were subjected to a hypoxic environment (low levels of oxygen) in the University’s Extreme Environments Laboratories. Despite reduced oxygen levels, exercise continued to improve cognitive performance. Co-lead author Dr Thomas Williams, from the University’s Extreme Environments Research Group, explains why the team decided to examine a combination of stressors for the study. “Sleep deprivation is often combined with other stressors,” he notes. “For example, people who travel at high altitudes are also likely to experience a disruption in their sleep pattern.” “One possible hypothesis for why exercise improves cognitive performance is related to increased cerebral blood flow and oxygenation, however, our findings suggest that even when exercise is performed in an environment with low oxygen levels, participants “They were still able to perform cognitive tasks better than when they were at rest under the same conditions,” he added. The study explains that the improvement in cognitive ability during exercise – even when the person does not sleep and has little oxygen – could be due to changes in the amount of regulatory hormones in the brain, as well as a series of psychophysiological factors such as blood flow. brain, excitement and motivation. It suggests that cognitive performance does not depend solely on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) area of the brain, although it plays an integral role in task performance. “The PFC is very sensitive to its neurochemical environment and very susceptible to stress,” explains co-senior author Juan Ignacio Badariotti, from the University’s Department of Psychology. “It regulates our thoughts, actions and emotions and is considered the main part of the brain associated with executive functions”. “But our findings suggest that the mechanisms underlying CP may not be isolated in this area, and instead we should consider that it is the product of a series of coordinated processes widely distributed across different cortical and subcortical regions,” subraua. The study recommends further research to reveal what neurobiological mechanisms are behind the process of cognitive function. This discovery would support anyone experiencing sleep disruption or lack of oxygen, including climbers and skiers, but also parents of young children and shift workers.
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