Enhance Your Memory: Study Suggests This 30-Minute Activity

In the morning, before leaving for work, on the lunch break or just after work, some people like to exercise. This is not the case for everyone. Question of feasibility or desire. However, a recent study published on December 10, 2024 in the journal International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity highlights the fact that daily exercise would have a beneficial effect on… memory.

Brain and sport, the pair that works

We know that practicing physical activity regularly, daily or weekly, is a good thing for the entire body. This could mean running, cycling, going to the gym, etc.

And even the brain can benefit from it. Indeed, in view of previous studies which have been carried out on this subject, it has already been proven that physical activity makes it possible to improve cognitive functions while reducing the risk of decline in mental abilities, namely dementia.

The observation of Mikaela Bloomberg, the main author of the study, is therefore very simple: “Physical activity is beneficial for the brain” she declared to Guardian. That and at least six hours of restful sleep, of course.

But what about memory? Can sport be an asset to boost this aspect of our brain which, sometimes, we lack?

30 minutes of physical activity would increase memory capacity the following day

Mikaela Bloomberg carried out her experiment on a sample of 76 adults aged 50 to 83. In addition to the age differences between individuals, the scientist ensured that the participants were in good condition before starting the study. Thus, none of them already suffered from dementia or a partial or total loss of cognitive functions.

Thanks to a device that monitors their physical activity as well as their sleep cycle, the study participants returned to their normal lives. The simple difference was that every day, a small cognitive test to take online was given to them to observe their results.

After some time, Mikaela Bloomberg and her team were able to make their conclusion. According to their study, when participants exercised at medium or high intensity for 30 minutes the day before a test, and they slept well, two aspects of memory (working and episodic) saw their capacity increase by 2 to 5%.

Conversely, the researchers noticed that when the study participants returned to a sedentary life without sport, their memory capacity suffered a small loss.

Limits to the study and future experiments

As specified a little above, if the study makes it possible to highlight the benefits of sport on the increase in memory capacity, it does not concern people who suffer from a partial loss of it. .

Could sport be the key to “recovering memory”? It is impossible to say. However, Mikaela Bloomberg has already taken this into account and future experiments could attempt to demonstrate that sport is also beneficial to people who may lack memory and cognitive functions.

“The idea is that for people with mild cognitive impairment, a very minor improvement in everyday cognitive performance can make a huge difference.” explained the researcher to Guardian.

Finally, the British daily noted an interesting fact about the study participants: all of them had a high level of education, perfect health and already did a lot of sport.

This could bias the study since according to the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), the capacity for memorization would be influenced in particular by:

• quality of sleep
• food
• sports
• social activities

And regarding cognitive reserve, “the effectiveness of the neural networks involved in carrying out a task and that of the brain in mobilizing or setting up compensatory networks”, it could depend, according to Inserm, on several factors including the level of education, sleep or even the importance of learning.

So, even if sport has, of course, a beneficial effect on the brain and memory, it would be necessary to carry out a larger-scale study including a larger sample of the population to observe physical and social disparities to enable us to prove that sport really helps improve memory from one day to the next.

Source : Guardian / Inserm