{
  "abstract": "Insufficient sleep impairs cognition, particularly hippocampal-dependent memory. However, effective strategies for addressing these effects in humans remain limited. Physical exercise enhances slow-wave sleep (SWS) and improves memory performance, suggesting it may provide a physiologically grounded buffer against sleep-loss–related memory deficits. Here, we tested whether a single session of moderate-intensity exercise may protect long-term declarative memory following sleep restriction, and whether SWS mediates this effect. Eighty-eight healthy young adults (52% female; 24.0 ± 3.8 years) were randomly assigned to one of four groups based on exercise and sleep opportunity: average sleep (S8: 8.5 hours/night), sleep restriction (S5: 4.5 hours/night), exercise before average sleep (ExS8), and exercise before sleep restriction (ExS5). Participants completed either a 30-min evening moderate-intensity cycling (7: 00 p.m.; 55%–60% VO₂max) or seated rest prior to learning 80 face–name pairs (10:00 p.m.), followed by immediate and delayed recall (120 face-name pairs: 80 studied, 40 novel) after polysomnography-recorded sleep. We found a significant exercise × sleep interaction for delayed recall performance (discriminability index, d′; p = .033, partial η2 = 0.056). The delayed recall d′ of the ExS5 was significantly higher than the S5 (p = .028), but was comparable to S8 and ExS8 groups (ps > 0.05). The proportion of SWS mediated the association between exercise and delayed recall d′ (B = 0.105, SE = 0.091, 95% bootstrap CI (0.073, 0.924)). These findings indicate that acute moderate-intensity exercise is associated with offsetting the negative impact of sleep restriction on long-term declarative memory in sleep restriction, an effect statistically mediated by SWS percentage.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 14,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Emmanuel Frimpong",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-5238-9236"
    },
    {
      "name": "Melodee Mograss"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jocelyn Dautet-Plourde"
    },
    {
      "name": "Nicole Milbrath"
    },
    {
      "name": "Francois Pointeau"
    },
    {
      "name": "Manlu Xu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ngoc Long Khang Nguyen"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tehila Zvionow"
    },
    {
      "name": "Mylene Aubertin-Leheudre",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6796-6710"
    },
    {
      "name": "Louis Bherer"
    },
    {
      "name": "Véronique Pepin"
    },
    {
      "name": "Edwin Robertson"
    },
    {
      "name": "Arsenio Páez",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7984-514X"
    },
    {
      "name": "Thien Thanh Dang-Vu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/az14cqezzqdt4.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1093/sleep/zsag235",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13747342/",
  "id": "az14cqezzqdt4",
  "issns": [
    "0161-8105",
    "1550-9109"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag235",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/MED00370"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/MED00385"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/SCI01870"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Original Article"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Sleep and Wakefulness Research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7204474923",
  "pdf_url": "https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/sleep/zsag235/70810924/zsag235.pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13747342",
  "pmid": "42648715",
  "published": "2026-08-26",
  "publisher": "Oxford University Press",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/az14cqezzqdt4.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-12T12:23:24Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13747342",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag235"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2805|Sleep and Wakefulness Research",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Slow-wave sleep mediates the compensatory effects of acute moderate-intensity exercise on declarative memory deficits in sleep restriction",
  "title_text": "Slow-wave sleep mediates the compensatory effects of acute moderate-intensity exercise on declarative memory deficits in sleep restriction",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-13T12:24:14Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/az14cqezzqdt4",
  "venue": "Sleep",
  "versions": []
}