Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

The growing public health problem of cognitive impairment-and the fact a pharmaceutical cure does not yet exist-places increasing need for lifestyle and behavioural approaches that maintain cognitive health. Current evidence suggests physical activity and sleep quality are important for cognitive health. Research also suggests physical activity and sleep quality may be related to each other. Since physical activity and sleep quality may be associated with each other and with cognitive function, investigating the relationships PA and sleep quality have with cognitive function should not be performed in isolation. For example, it is plausible physical activity does not independently predict cognitive function, but influences cognition through sleep (or vice-versa). We therefore examined whether 1) physical activity is associated with better cognitive performance independent of sleep quality; 2) sleep quality is associated with better cognitive performance independent of physical activity; and 3) physical activity is associated with sleep quality. Our findings suggest that both physical activity and sleep quality are associated with cognitive performance. However, since we did not find any relationships between physical activity and sleep quality, we suggest that physical activity and sleep quality may help preserve cognitive function through independent mechanisms.