How Reading Helps to Improve your Wellbeing

A quote from French writer and philosopher Voltaire said “Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”

Reading brings a statistically significant improvement in symptoms for people diagnosed with depression, which can be feelings of loneliness and isolation. It can also remind people of activities or occupations they once pursued or something which they used to do as a kid or used to love, or knowledge and skills they still possess, helping to restore their sense of having a place and purpose in the world.

Reading is not just a habit but a whole new therapy. In a recent Quick Reads research, readers reported stronger feelings of relaxation from reading than from watching television, engaging with social media, or reading other leisure materials such as magazines. Reading is associated with a particular kind of mentally and emotionally “engaged” relaxation, quite unlike the passivity associated with other leisure activities, such as watching television.

The concentration which reading demands and the absorption into a parallel world which it produces helps personal worries recede and offer protection from the distractions and stresses of everyday anxiety. In the survey, 43% of readers said reading helped them get a better night’s sleep.

Five ways reading can improve health and well-being
For many of us, there’s nothing quite like getting lost in a good book; reading can transport us to another world, providing an escape from life’s everyday stresses, at least temporarily. But increasingly, researchers are finding that reading may offer some very real benefits for health and well-being.

• Reading can reduce stress

Stress is believed to contribute to around 60 percent of all human illness and disease; it can raise the risks of stroke and heart disease by 50 percent and 40 percent, respectively.

Of course, day-to-day life makes it impossible to eliminate stress completely, but there are things we can do to reduce stress and stop it from becoming a serious health issue. One strategy is reading.

According to a 2009 study conducted by the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, reading can reduce stress levels by as much as 68 percent, even more than listening to music or going for a walk.

• Reading can slow cognitive decline

As we age, our brain slows down, and cognitive tasks that we may have once found easy, such as remembering a name or a house number, may become more challenging.

But according to a number of studies, reading could help slow down or even prevent cognitive decline, and it may even help stave off more severe forms of cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

• Reading can improve sleep quality

Smartphones have become our everyday bedtime buddy. Where’s the harm in having a quick check of Facebook before lights out? According to research, it could wreak havoc for your sleep.
A study published earlier this year in the journal Social Science & Medicine found that using a smartphone just before bedtime is linked to shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality.
So swap your smartphone for a book before bedtime; according to the Mayo Clinic, creating a bedtime ritual – such as reading a book – can “promote better sleep by easing the transition between wakefulness and drowsiness.”

• Reading can enhance social skills

Some people view books as a way to escape the real world and the people in it, but research has shown that when it comes to social skills, reading may have its uses.

The most essential characteristic of being human is that our lives are social. What’s distinctive about humans is that we make social arrangements with other people – with friends, with lovers, with children – that aren’t pre-programmed by instinct. Fiction can augment and help us understand our social experience.

• Reading may enhance intelligence

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. Studies have shown that reading can increase an individual’s vocabulary, which has been linked with greater intelligence.

What is more, it appears that the stronger a person’s early reading skills, the more intelligent they are likely to become.

Over to you
For those of you who are avid readers, you can be safe in the knowledge that your pastime is providing a wealth of benefits for your health and well-being. If you are still not convinced then try it out yourself.