High intensity exercise before sleep boosts memory encoding the next morning
The importance of sleep for memory consolidation has been extensively studied, but its role for memory encoding remains less well characterized. At the molecular and cellular level, the renormalization of synaptic weights during sleep has received substantial support, which is thought to free capacity to encode new information at the behavioral level. However, at the systems level and behaviorally, support for this process playing a major role for memory function remains scarce. In the current study, we investigated the utility of moderate- and high-intensity evening exercise as a low-cost low-tech intervention to modulate sleep and its influence on subsequent encoding in the morning. Our findings indicate that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) improved post-sleep memory performance with effects lasting up to 24 hours after initial encoding. In addition, we show that especially the early parts of the encoding task were affected by the HIIT intervention, which is in line with increases in synaptic homeostasis being targeted by the exercise. Intriguingly, low-performing participants seemed to benefit more from the HIIT intervention suggesting it not only as a tool for basic research but also as a candidate for applications to boost memory performance in mental disorders or in the elderly. These results provide first evidence that acute exercise can affect learning processes even hours after it occurs.