balancebombom prospekt paperturn - Flipbook - Side 31
7. It Can Help Your Brain Health
and Memory
8. It Can Help With Relaxation
and Sleep Quality
Exercise can improve brain function and
protect memory and thinking skills.
To begin with, it increases your heart rate,
which promotes the flow of blood and oxygen
to your brain.
Regular exercise can help you relax and sleep
better (37Trusted Source, 38Trusted Source).
In regards to sleep quality, the energy depletion that occurs during exercise stimulates
recuperative processes during sleep (38Trusted Source).
It can also stimulate the production of hormones that can enhance the growth of brain
cells.
Moreover, the ability of exercise to prevent
chronic disease can translate into benefits for
your brain, since its function can be affected
by these diseases (32).
Regular physical activity is especially important in older adults since aging — combined with oxidative stress and inflammation — promotes changes in brain structure
and function (33Trusted Source, 34Trusted
Source).
Exercise has been shown to cause the hippocampus, a part of the brain that’s vital
for memory and learning, to grow in size.
This serves to increase mental function in
older adults (33Trusted Source, 34Trusted
Source, 35Trusted Source).
Lastly, exercise has been shown to reduce
changes in the brain that can cause Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia (36Trusted
Source).
Moreover, the increase in body temperature
that occurs during exercise is thought to improve sleep quality by helping it drop during
sleep (39Trusted Source).
Many studies on the effects of exercise on
sleep have reached similar conclusions.
One study found that 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week can provide
up to a 65% improvement in sleep quality
(40).
Another showed that 16 weeks of physical
activity increased sleep quality and helped 17
people with insomnia sleep longer and more
deeply than the control group. It also helped
them feel more energized during the day
(41Trusted Source).
What’s more, engaging in regular exercise seems to be beneficial for the elderly, who tend to be affected by sleep
disorders (41Trusted Source, 42Trusted
Source, 43Trusted Source).
SUMMARY:
Regular exercise improves blood
flow to the brain and helps brain
health and memory. Among
older adults, it can help protect
mental function.
31
