Investigating how an exercise intervention influences sleep, and memory and thinking skills, in healthy older adults with poor sleep.

Participants complete a triple baseline assessment for the current study, with baseline sessions separated by approximately one week. In the first and third baseline assessments, participants first complete the cogstate cognitive battery, and subsequently undergo a maximal fitness test conducted on a stationary bicycle. During the fitness test, participants cycle at varying intensities and wear a specially designed mask which measures their breathing rate. At the second baseline assessment participants complete only the cogstate cognitive battery and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). After baseline assessments are complete, there is approximately 7 days until the intervention sessions, which are conducted in a counter balanced order. The intervention for the current study is a high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) intervention, designed as a cross-over trial. The intervention will be conducted on a stationary bicycle ergometer and will consist of 10x 1 minute bouts at 80% of individual peak aerobic power (produced in a baseline fitness assessment), interspersed by 1 minute of active recovery at 40% of their peak aerobic power, resulting in a total of 20 minutes cycling. The intervention is delivered under the supervision of a trained and accredited exercise physiologist. The intervention session will be conducted individually for each participant at Murdoch University, and participants will only receive the intervention once. There will be a wash out period of approximately seven days between the control and intervention conditions.