Exercise is enormously important for physical health - but also for mental health.
A study by the Johannes Kepler University Linz has now shown that a lack of exercise even leads to a reduction in cognitive performance such as short-term memory. Manuela Macedonia from the Institute of Information Systems - Information Engineering at the JKU also found that attention and short-term memory also suffer with little exercise.
In the recently published study, 318 young adults were examined to see what effects the lack of exercise during the coronavirus lockdown had on the short-term memory and attention of young students in Austria, Germany, Italy and Iran. "We looked at how the amount of exercise changed before, during and after the lockdown," explains Macedonia. Stress levels and sleep times were also surveyed.
The results clearly showed that the test subjects were under greater stress and increasing anxiety during the lockdown, which had an impact on their sleep. The amount of exercise also decreased - and with it both the performance of short-term memory and the ability to pay attention.
As soon as outdoor sports were possible again after the lockdown, the cognitive abilities quickly returned to the pre-lockdown level. "The fact that these were young people was an advantage here," emphasizes the JKU researcher. "Other studies have shown that older people take longer and the existing literature shows that there was an increase in cases of dementia after the lockdown."
Her conclusion: "Prolonged physical inactivity is not only bad for the body, but also for the mind." This should be taken into account in the future:"Should a situation similar to a lockdown arise again, it is important for people to know that they need to compensate for the lack of exercise somehow - for the sake of their mental abilities."
Reference: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691824003494
