Ways Reading Can Change Your Life (And Best Practices)

Posted on August 21st

You’ve probably heard that reading can be good for you. You may have heard it your whole life. But maybe reading just isn’t your thing.

Maybe you enjoy reading, but you have trouble comprehending difficult material from your classes or your workplace. Good news—this article can help.

WHY IS READING SO BENEFICIAL?

You’ve heard that reading is good, but what about it is so special? Why should you take the time to read? If you’ve been asking those questions, here are five ways that reading can significantly benefit your life.

1. READING HELPS WITH EMPATHY

Empathy is an important character trait people can develop. It helps us relate to other people and encourages us to be kind and considerate of other people’s feelings.

As it turns out, reading can actually help improve empathy.

When people read stories about other people’s lives, it helps them develop the skills to understand the world through another person’s perspective. This is a key element in being empathetic toward others.

One way reading does this is through improving something called “theory of the mind.” Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states like beliefs, intents, desires or emotions to others and to understand that other people have different beliefs, intents and desires than our own. When you read literary fiction, you’re deepening your understanding of other people’s thoughts, emotions and desires.

This understanding can be used in real life to try to understand and relate to other people, no matter what their background is.

2. READING REDUCES STRESS AND HELPS YOU SLEEP

Life can be stressful, especially with busy or challenging work and school schedules. It’s hard to escape the feeling of stress and anxiety from a hectic lifestyle. Fortunately, reading can actually help lower stress levels. Not only that, but it can also help you sleep better at night.

According to a study conducted by The University of Sussex, reading can reduce stress levels by up to 68%.

The Telegraph quoted Professor David Lewis, the cognitive neuropsychologist who conducted the study, saying, “It really doesn’t matter what book you read, by losing yourself in a thoroughly engrossing book you can escape from the worries and stresses of the everyday world and spend a while exploring the domain of the author’s imagination … the printed page [can] stimulate your creativity and cause you to enter what is essentially an altered state of consciousness.”

Along with reducing stress, reading can help you get a better night’s sleep. Many people turn to technology before going to bed, but screens can keep you up at night and cause you to have trouble sleeping. Books, on the other hand, can help you sleep better. Reading helps you relax and can signal your body that it’s time to go to sleep.

3. READING GROWS YOUR VOCABULARY

If you want to have an impressive vocabulary, pick up a book.

It’s much easier to learn vocabulary from a book than from memorizing words in the dictionary. That’s because you’re learning the words contextually. The words make sense within the context of what you’re reading so it makes it easier to remember later.

4. READING CAN HELP IMPROVE YOUR MOOD

It may seem unlikely, but reading can actually make you feel happier. There are a variety of reasons that this is true.

According to researcher Dr. Josie Billington from the Centre of Research into Reading, Literature and Society, “reading reminds people of activities or occupations they once pursued, or knowledge and skills they still possess, helping to restore their sense of having a place and purpose in the world.”

As with relieving stress, the transportive nature of reading can also take people away from things that are upsetting or frustrating them in their normal lives.

Not only that but when we read, we learn that there are other people who are going through similar or equally difficult struggles as our own. It can help us fight feelings of isolation or loneliness.

Historically, reading has been used to help people through difficult times. During WWI, the United States’ Library War Service, an initiative that started with the Library of Congress, collected over 700 million reading materials for troops. The belief was that the books could help troops heal from the trauma of war.

The librarians noted that the books did help calm the troops and helped them begin their mental and emotional recoveries. Books and reading have the power to improve your mood and help you deal with difficult circumstances.

5. READING STRENGTHENS THE BRAIN

Another amazing benefit of reading is it improves your brain!

When you read something it ignites your neural pathways. While reading, your brain must remember facts and details such as characters, plots and subplots. As your brain retains this information, you’re creating new memories. That means new synapses are being created, and old ones are being strengthened. This improves your short term and long term memory functions.

Elderly people who do mental exercises like regular reading are 32% less likely to experience mental decline. In fact, a lifetime of reading can decrease a person’s chances of developing Alzheimer’s.

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