You Have Only 3 Options for How to Spend Your Time. You’ll Want to Choose Wisely.

Which one you lean into during your 24 daily hours can greatly affect how well your brain works

Image: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock. Used under the writer’s license.

There are three mutually exclusive states of being, explains Maddison Mellow, PhD, a researcher in health and human performance at the University of South Australia: At any given moment, you can be physically active, sedentary, or asleep. You can’t be in more than one state at a time, and to some extent most of us have considerable choice over which to be in.

Choosing more of the first state — physical activity — doesn’t just promote improved physical capability, better health, increased energy, better sleep, a stronger immune system and longer life. It’s also really good for your mind, Mellow and her colleagues discovered in some nifty new research.

“We know that being more active can improve our sleep, or having a better night’s sleep could boost our energy levels to perform physical activity the next day,” Mellow says. “In this study we explored how different uses of time impact your brain. We found that higher levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity — that is, activity performed at higher intensities that increases your heart rate and breathing — was related to better cognitive…