Learn Hardcore Swedish: Bra sömn och regelbunden motion hjälper hjärnan, säger läkaren. - Good sleep and regular exercise help the brain, says the doctor.

If you say en bra sömn, it sounds like “one good sleep / one good night’s sleep” – a specific instance. That’s possible in some contexts, but here we’re talking about sleep in general, so no article is used.

Why is it regelbunden motion and not regelbundet motion or regelbundna motion?

Adjectives in Swedish agree with the noun:

en-words (common gender): regelbunden (en regelbunden X)
ett-words (neuter): regelbundet (ett regelbundet X)
plural: regelbundna (regelbundna X)

The word motion is an en-word (en motion), so the adjective must be in the en-form:

regelbunden motion = regular exercise

So:

en regelbunden vana (en-word)
ett regelbundet liv (ett-word)
regelbundna vanor (plural)

Why is it hjälper and not hjälpa or hjälper till?

You use hjälper because the sentence is in the present tense and hjälpa is the infinitive:

infinitive: att hjälpa = to help
present: hjälper = (it) helps

hjälpa till exists, but it means “to help out / assist” (more like contributing to an activity), not “to be good for / benefit”.

Here we want “help / benefit the brain”, so we use hjälper directly with an object:

Bra sömn och regelbunden motion hjälper hjärnan.

No preposition is needed.

Why is it hjärnan with -an at the end? Why not just hjärna?

The ending -an makes the noun definite:

hjärna = a brain (indefinite)
hjärnan = the brain (definite)

In Swedish, when you talk about body parts or things in a general, typical human sense, you often use the definite form:

Hjärnan behöver vila. = The brain needs rest. (the human brain in general)
Hjärtat är en muskel. = The heart is a muscle.

So hjärnan here means “the brain” in a general sense, not a specific individual brain.

Why isn’t it hjälper din hjärna (your brain)? In English we usually say “helps your brain”.

Swedish doesn’t use possessive pronouns as much as English for body parts or things “belonging to” you. It often uses just:

the definite form of the noun (hjärnan, kroppen, etc.)
and lets context show whose it is.

So:

Bra sömn hjälper hjärnan.
Literally: “Good sleep helps the brain.”
Meaning: it’s good for people’s brains / your brain.

You can say hjälper din hjärna, but that shifts the focus more personally to your brain specifically. For a general health statement, hjärnan is more natural.

Why does hjälper look the same even though the subject is plural (Bra sömn och regelbunden motion)?

Swedish verbs do not change with person or number in the present tense. There is only one present form:

jag hjälper = I help
du hjälper = you help
han/hon hjälper = he/she helps
vi hjälper = we help
de hjälper = they help

So with a plural subject like Bra sömn och regelbunden motion, the verb is still just hjälper.

Could I say God sömn instead of Bra sömn? What’s the difference between bra and god?

Both bra and god can mean “good”, but they’re used differently:

bra = good, in a broad sense (quality, usefulness, benefit)
god = good, often about taste or sometimes more “wholesome / pleasant”

For sleep:

bra sömn is the normal phrase for “good (quality) sleep”.
god sömn exists but sounds a bit more formal or poetic, or like a wish:
Sov gott! (“Sleep well.”)

In ordinary, neutral speech about health, you say:

Bra sömn är viktigt.
Bra sömn hjälper hjärnan.

What exactly does motion mean here? Is it the same as träning?

motion in Swedish usually means physical exercise for health, often fairly moderate:

going for walks
jogging
cycling
going to the gym, etc.

träning is “training/practice” and can be:

physical training (gym, sports)
practicing a skill (e.g. språkträning = language practice)

In health advice, motion is very common and slightly more neutral/general than träning. In this sentence, regelbunden motion is best translated as “regular exercise”.

Why is the word order hjälper hjärnan, säger läkaren and not hjälper hjärnan, läkaren säger?

Swedish normally has the verb in second position in a main clause (the “V2 rule”). Here, the whole first clause:

Bra sömn och regelbunden motion hjälper hjärnan

is treated as position 1, and then the reporting clause is inverted:

säger läkaren (verb first, subject second)

This pattern is very common in reported speech:

”Det är viktigt”, säger läkaren.
Det är viktigt, säger läkaren.

Läkaren säger is also possible, but then it usually comes before the statement:

Läkaren säger att bra sömn och regelbunden motion hjälper hjärnan.

At the end of the sentence, säger läkaren is the normal pattern, not läkaren säger.

Could I rewrite it with att? Like: Läkaren säger att bra sömn och regelbunden motion hjälper hjärnan. Is that correct?

Yes, that’s completely correct and very natural:

Läkaren säger att bra sömn och regelbunden motion hjälper hjärnan.

Here:

Läkaren säger = the main clause
att bra sömn och regelbunden motion hjälper hjärnan = a subordinate clause (a “that”-clause) explaining what the doctor says.

The original sentence simply puts the statement first and the speaker after it. Both versions are common, just slightly different styles.

Why is there a comma before säger läkaren in Swedish? In English we might not always use one.

Swedish punctuation in this kind of sentence is similar to English:

First you have the statement:
Bra sömn och regelbunden motion hjälper hjärnan
Then a comma
Then the reporting clause:
säger läkaren

The comma separates what is said from who says it. You’ll see this pattern a lot in written Swedish:

Det är farligt att röka, säger forskarna.
Vi ses imorgon, säger hon.

You could also write the version with att and no comma in the middle:

Läkaren säger att bra sömn och regelbunden motion hjälper hjärnan.

How do you pronounce hjärnan? Is the h in hj pronounced?

Pronunciation points:

hj at the beginning of a word is pronounced like “y” in “yes”. The h is silent.
ä is like the vowel in English “bed”, but a bit clearer/tenser.
The final -an is roughly “ahn”.

So hjärnan is approximately:

/ˈjærːnan/ (Swedish style)
Like English “YAIR-nahn” (rough approximation)

Why is it regelbunden motion and not motionsregelbunden or reversed order?

In Swedish, the usual word order is:

adjective + noun
regelbunden motion = regular exercise

If you tried to put them the other way, you’d either get something ungrammatical or a compound noun with a different meaning.

motions- can be used as the first part of a compound:
motionsspår (jogging trail), motionscykel (exercise bike)
but that’s a different structure.

For simple descriptions like “regular X, good Y, bad Z”, it’s always:

bra sömn, dålig mat, regelbunden motion, hårt arbete, etc.