• Posted August 26, 2026

After A Sleepless Night, Which Better Boosts Brain Power — Exercise Or A Nap?

A short bout of exercise appears to work quicker than a long nap to refresh a sleep-deprived mind, a new study says.

About 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise performed as well as a 90-minute nap in protecting the memory of people who’d gone 30 hours without sleep, researchers reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Sleep-deprived folks performed about 22% better on memory tests when they either worked out or napped, compared to those who did neither, researchers said.

“Sleep loss affects nearly every aspect of how we think and function, but many people can't simply stop what they're doing and get more sleep,” senior researcher Marc Roig said in a news release.

“Our findings show that even a brief bout of exercise may help preserve one of our most important cognitive abilities,” he said. Roig is a professor of physical and occupational therapy at McGill University in Canada.

For the new study, 54 young adults stayed awake for 30 hours under lab supervision. They then were randomly assigned to spin 20 minutes on an exercise bike, take a 90-minute nap or serve as a control group by just sitting around.

After that, researchers showed the participants a series of 150 images and asked them to indicate the intensity of emotion associated with each picture. The emotion check ensured that participants registered each picture and remained awake while viewing them.

The research team brought the study participants back three days later, and showed the 150 images again mixed with 75 new ones. The participants were asked to judge whether or not they had seen each image during their earlier visit.

Those who exercised or napped remembered significantly more images than those who just sat around, the study found. 

Brain recordings taken of the participants showed that exercise and napping helped in different ways, researchers said.

Napping appeared to help the brain recharge and refresh itself, while exercise helped the brain use its remaining resources more efficiently.

These results could help workers at jobs where sleep loss is common and mistakes can have serious consequences, researchers said.

For example, hospital emergency department staff, bus drivers or paramedics might be able to use exercise to fight off fatigue during their shift, researchers said.

“A nap isn't always possible in the middle of a shift,” lead researcher Madhura Lotlikar, a doctoral candidate at McGill, said in a news release. “Exercise is accessible, inexpensive and easy to implement. That makes it a promising tool to help people stay cognitively sharp when sleep is limited.”

However, researchers emphasized that exercise cannot replace sleep; it can only help people function better when getting enough rest isn’t possible.

More information

Harvard Medical School has more on how exercise can boost memory and thinking.

SOURCE: McGill University, news release, Aug. 24, 2026