Slow-wave sleep mediates the compensatory effects of acute moderate-intensity exercise on declarative memory deficits in sleep restriction
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.
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BibTeX
@article{frimpong2026slowwave,
title = {{Slow-wave sleep mediates the compensatory effects of acute moderate-intensity exercise on declarative memory deficits in sleep restriction}},
author = {Emmanuel Frimpong and Melodee Mograss and Jocelyn Dautet-Plourde and Nicole Milbrath and Francois Pointeau and Manlu Xu and Ngoc Long Khang Nguyen and Tehila Zvionow and Mylene Aubertin-Leheudre and Louis Bherer and Véronique Pepin and Edwin Robertson and Arsenio Páez and Thien Thanh Dang-Vu},
journal = {Sleep},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1093/sleep/zsag235},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag235},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Slow-wave sleep mediates the compensatory effects of acute moderate-intensity exercise on declarative memory deficits in sleep restriction
AU - Emmanuel Frimpong
AU - Melodee Mograss
AU - Jocelyn Dautet-Plourde
AU - Nicole Milbrath
AU - Francois Pointeau
AU - Manlu Xu
AU - Ngoc Long Khang Nguyen
AU - Tehila Zvionow
AU - Mylene Aubertin-Leheudre
AU - Louis Bherer
AU - Véronique Pepin
AU - Edwin Robertson
AU - Arsenio Páez
AU - Thien Thanh Dang-Vu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/26
JO - Sleep
DO - 10.1093/sleep/zsag235
UR - https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag235
AB - 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.
SN - 0161-8105
SN - 1550-9109
ER -