Wake Up Your Mind by Waking Up Your Body

"In the morning, it is better to wake up your mind by waking up your body, rather than doing a drug (caffeine)."
(from my tweets, 2014)

In late 2014 I was running experiments on my own mornings. I tweeted that I was getting into the habit of skipping caffeine and waking up instead with 20 minutes of meditation in "painful yoga positions." A few weeks later I posted an experimental schedule that started with a two-hour workout.

I'm not going to argue against coffee. For most people, a cup or two is fine. But the instinct behind the tweet, that moving your body is one of the best ways to lift your mind, is very well supported by research.

Exercise and mental health

In 2018, a team including Sammi and Adam Chekroud analyzed survey data from about 1.2 million adults in the United States. They compared how many days of poor mental health people reported in the previous month, depending on whether they exercised.

People who exercised reported about 43 percent fewer days of poor mental health than similar people who didn't, after accounting for things like income, age and physical health. Every type of exercise they looked at helped, including household chores. Team sports, cycling and aerobic or gym activities were linked to the biggest differences.

Movement as treatment

Exercise doesn't just go along with better mood. In some studies, it seems to help treat depression.

In a well-known 1999 trial led by James Blumenthal at Duke University, older adults with major depression were randomly assigned to one of three groups for 16 weeks: aerobic exercise, an antidepressant medication, or both. By the end, all three groups had improved by similar amounts. Exercise alone worked about as well as the medication for many participants, though the medication worked faster at first.

Exercise may also help prevent depression. A 2018 meta-analysis by Felipe Schuch and colleagues pooled studies following more than 260,000 people over time. People with higher levels of physical activity were less likely to develop depression later, and this held across age groups and around the world.

More is not always better

There is an interesting twist in the Chekroud study, and it's one my 2014 self might have needed to hear.

The benefit wasn't endless. The best results were linked to sessions of about 45 minutes, three to five times a week. People who exercised for more than about three hours a day actually reported worse mental health than people who didn't exercise at all. The researchers suggested that extreme amounts might reflect obsessive patterns rather than healthy ones.

So the goal is regular movement, not punishment. A brisk walk counts. A painful two-hour routine every day isn't necessary, and for some people it may backfire.

What the philosophers said

The Roman poet Juvenal gave us one of the oldest phrases on this subject. In his tenth Satire, he wrote that we should pray for mens sana in corpore sano, "a sound mind in a sound body." For Juvenal, these were among the few things truly worth wishing for, more than wealth, fame or a long life.

Friedrich Nietzsche, who suffered from poor health for much of his life, took long walks almost every day. In Twilight of the Idols (1889), he wrote that "only thoughts reached by walking have value." He believed that sitting still too long dulled the mind, and that moving the body freed it to think.

Some honest caveats

The large survey studies are correlational. People who feel better may simply find it easier to exercise. The treatment trials are stronger evidence, but they are smaller, and exercise doesn't work for everyone. Depression is a serious illness, and exercise should be part of a plan made with a doctor, not a replacement for one.

Also, caffeine isn't the villain. Moderate coffee drinking is linked to good health outcomes in many studies. You can drink coffee and take a morning walk.

How to wake up your body

• Start small. Ten minutes of walking, stretching or easy yoga after you get up is a good beginning.
• Get outside if you can. Morning daylight also helps set your body clock.
• Aim for the sweet spot. Around 45 minutes, three to five times a week, was linked to the best mental health in the big study.
• Count everything. Chores, gardening, dancing and walking the dog all count.
• Don't punish yourself. Exercise should leave you feeling better, not wrecked. More isn't always better.
• Pair it with something you enjoy. Music, a podcast or a friend can make it easier to keep going.

Today's reflection

How does your body feel when you start your day? What is one small way you could move a little more tomorrow morning?

Sources

• Blumenthal, J. A., Babyak, M. A., Moore, K. A., Craighead, W. E., Herman, S., Khatri, P., Waugh, R., Napolitano, M. A., Forman, L. M., Appelbaum, M., Doraiswamy, P. M., & Krishnan, K. R. (1999). Effects of exercise training on older patients with major depression. Archives of Internal Medicine, 159(19), 2349–2356.
• Chekroud, S. R., Gueorguieva, R., Zheutlin, A. B., Paulus, M., Krumholz, H. M., Krystal, J. H., & Chekroud, A. M. (2018). Association between physical exercise and mental health in 1·2 million individuals in the USA between 2011 and 2015: A cross-sectional study. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(9), 739–746.
• Juvenal. Satires, X, line 356.
• Nietzsche, F. (1889). Twilight of the Idols, "Maxims and Arrows," 34.
• Schuch, F. B., Vancampfort, D., Firth, J., Rosenbaum, S., Ward, P. B., Silva, E. S., Hallgren, M., Ponce De Leon, A., Dunn, A. L., Deslandes, A. C., Fleck, M. P., Carvalho, A. F., & Stubbs, B. (2018). Physical activity and incident depression: A meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. American Journal of Psychiatry, 175(7), 631–648.