According to Ormond (2016)
proper sleeping habits and consistent physical exercises promote better brain functioning. The author further states that sleeping within the recommended period of 6-8 hours helps to boost mental alertness because the brain is able to consolidate new memories. The essay discusses the effects of sleeping habits, durations and physical activity on cognitive functioning in young adults.
Kato et al. (2017) state
that regular body exercises increase the flow of oxyhemoglobin in the frontal cortices which subsequently promotes the intellectual functioning. Most hypothetical studies suggest that the combination of proper sleep and exercises have benefits such as effective memory, spatial learning and enhanced hippocampal cell activity. When the body is deprived of enough sleep, the above activities are altered. The authors conducted research using 23 young adults to test this hypothesis. Their sleep durations were assessed by actigraphy. Body exercises were evaluated using a uniaxial accelerometer while mental functioning was measured using various test devices. Young adults who had low levels of cortical oxygenated haemoglobin stated that they had deprived sleep over the last few days (Kato et al., 2017, p. 232)
The researchers proved their hypothesis successfully
since the study identified a positive relationship between sleep loss and deprived cognitive functioning, poor performance, low memory and gloomy moods. The findings of this experiment are similar to Ormond (2016) which states that physical activities maintain proper working of the cardiovascular system. When doing body exercises, the prefrontal cortex and other cortical brain regions are activated robustly, improving the working memory of an individual (Ormond, 2016, p. 33). However, exercising does not impact on the long-term working memory. Engaging the body in such activities boosts the immediate brain performance over the next few hours. On the other hand, adequate sleeping hours improve one`s alertness for a longer period (Kato et al., 2017, p. 233).
References
Kato, K., Iwamoto, K., Kawano, N., Noda, Y., Ozaki, N., " Noda, A. (2017). Differential effects of physical activity and sleep duration on cognitive function in young adults. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 7(2), 227-236.
Ormond, J. (2016). Human Learning (7th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/ Merrill Prentice Hall.
