How to Protect Your Memory After a Sleepless Night According to New Research
- A short workout or a 90-minute nap can meaningfully reduce the memory damage caused by a sleepless night, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings...
- The study, led by researchers at McGill University, involved 54 healthy young adults who stayed awake for 30 hours under lab supervision.
- According to Marc Roig, a professor in McGill's School of Physical and Occupational Therapy and a senior author of the study, sleep loss impairs nearly every aspect of...
A short workout or a 90-minute nap can meaningfully reduce the memory damage caused by a sleepless night, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers at McGill University found that participants who completed either intervention performed about 22 percent better on memory tests after 30 consecutive hours without sleep compared to a control group that did neither.
Putting Exhausted Brains to the Test
The study, led by researchers at McGill University, involved 54 healthy young adults who stayed awake for 30 hours under lab supervision. Following this period of sleep deprivation, participants were split into three groups: one group completed a 20-minute moderate-to-vigorous cycling session, a second group took a 90-minute nap, and a control group. Three days later, researchers tested the participants’ memory for images they had viewed immediately after their assigned intervention.
The Cost of Fatigue and the Case for Motion
According to Marc Roig, a professor in McGill’s School of Physical and Occupational Therapy and a senior author of the study, sleep loss impairs nearly every aspect of cognitive function.
Sleep loss affects nearly every aspect of how we think and function, but many people can’t simply stop what they’re doing and get more sleep,
Roig stated in a release. Our findings show that even a brief bout of exercise may help preserve one of our most important cognitive abilities.
Distinct Neural Mechanisms at Play
While both interventions yielded nearly identical memory preservation scores, brain recordings analyzed by the McGill team revealed that napping and exercise operate through distinct neural mechanisms. Napping appears to help the brain recharge, facilitating the encoding and retention of new information. Conversely, exercise helps the brain optimize its remaining resources without inducing additional fatigue in participants.
Practical Tools for High-Stakes Professions
Madhura Lotlikar, a doctoral candidate in McGill’s Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery and first author of the study, highlighted the practical advantages of these differing pathways for high-fatigue professions.
A nap isn’t always possible in the middle of a shift,
Lotlikar noted. Exercise is accessible, inexpensive and easy to implement. That makes it a promising tool to help people stay cognitively sharp when sleep is limited.
Researchers emphasize that while these strategies can mitigate cognitive costs in fields such as health care, emergency response, and transportation where mistakes carry severe consequences, physical activity remains a supportive measure and cannot fully replace actual sleep.