"The groundwork of all happiness is health." - Leigh Hunt

Does poor sleep reduce the cognitive advantages of exercise?

Getting no less than 150 minutes of exercise each week (akin to brisk walking) is significant to keeping your memory and considering skills sharp. Exercise promotes the birth of recent brain cells and increases the production of enzymes that break down the amyloid protein related to dementia. Sleep also plays a task in cognitive health, flushing these amyloid proteins out of the brain. According to a study published in July 2023, the suitable amount of sleep is so essential that a scarcity of Z can sabotage the cognitive advantages of exercise. The Lancet Healthy Longevity. Researchers examined the outcomes of periodic memory tests and the sleep and exercise habits of nearly 9,000 dementia-free people (aged 50 and older) who were followed for greater than 10 years. Among those that began the study at age 50 or 60 and reported the best levels of exercise, those that said they slept lower than six hours per night had lower rates of cognitive decline than those that didn’t. There were more who said they got six to eight hours of sleep. per night. For those that began the study at age 70 and reported high levels of exercise, their sleep intake didn’t affect their rate of cognitive decline. The study was observational and doesn’t conclusively prove that less sleep negates the brain advantages of exercise.

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