When was the last time you read a book or a substantial magazine article? Are your daily reading habits centered around tweets, Facebook and Instagram updates or just the instructions from that ready meal?
If you're one of the many people who haven't made it a habit (yet) to read regularly, you're missing out on quite a bit.
Reading books is not only good for filling your head with knowledge, but it also makes your brain better, more active and brings a significant number of benefits.
You can of course take extra fish oil supplements or eat a lot of turmeric. You can invest in a language lesson, puzzle books or exercise a few hours a week. There are countless ways to improve your memory and cognitive functioning with brain training exercises. But one of the cheapest, easiest, and most proven ways to improve your brain is right under your nose: READ.
The fact that reading is good for your brain isn't surprising — there's a reason parents are often busy distracting their kids from their devices and persuading them to grab a good book. But there are amazingly more benefits to the aspects where such ordinary activity can improve your brain in so many ways. We list the 10 benefits of reading to stimulate and get you on your way to reading more.
Knowledge
Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information, and you never know when it might come in handy. The more knowledge you have, the better equipped you are to take on any challenge you may encounter.
Plus, here's a little food for thought: Should you ever find yourself in dire circumstances, remember that while you could lose everything else—your job, your possessions, your money, even your health—your knowledge can never be taken from you. .
Expanding your vocabulary
In addition to the above, the more you read, the more words you learn, which will inevitably find their way into your everyday vocabulary.
Being articulate is a big help in any profession, and knowing that you can confidently converse with all types of educated or untrained people can be a huge boost to your self-esteem. It can even help you career, as those who are well-read, can speak well, and are well-informed on a variety of subjects, tend to gain promotions more quickly (and more frequently) than those with smaller vocabulary and a lack of knowledge of literature, scientific knowledge, and aware of global events.
Reading books is also vital for learning new languages as reading in a non-native language exposes you to words used in context which will improve your own speaking and writing skills in that language.
Better writing skills
This goes hand in hand with expanding your vocabulary:
Exposure to published, well-written work has a remarkable effect on one's own writing, as observing the cadence, fluency, and writing styles of other authors will always influence your own work.
In the same way that musicians influence each other and painters use techniques developed by previous masters, writers learn to create prose by reading the works of others.
Stronger analytical thinking skills
Have you ever read an amazing mystery novel and solved the mystery yourself before finishing the book? If so, you could put your critical and analytical thinking to work by taking note of all the details provided and then already imagining the outcome of the book.
That same ability to analyze details also comes in handy when it comes to critiquing the plot; determine whether it was a well-written piece, whether the characters were well-developed, whether the storyline flowed smoothly, etc.
Reading helps the brain to work harder and better
The most basic impact occurs in the area associated with language reception, the left temporal cortex. Processing written material — from the letters to the words to the sentences to the stories themselves — grabs the neurons' attention as they start relaying all that information. That also happens when we process spoken language, but the very nature of reading encourages the brain to work harder and better.
“Typically, when you read, you have more time to think. Reading gives you a unique pause button for understanding and insight. In general, with spoken language – if you watch a movie or listen to a band, for example – you don't have to press the pause button.” , say Maryanne Wolf
And the benefits of reading continue long after you've put down that great book. A study from 2013, showed that some of those benefits associated with reading lasted as long as five days. This also is called a shadow activity, almost like the memory of a muscle.
Reading gives energy to the brain
Okay, sure, it's not surprising that the language part of the brain is trained by reading. But reading also energizes the region responsible for locomotion, the central sulcus. That's because the brain is a very exuberant stage actor. When it reads about a physical activity, the neurons that control that activity also become busy. Your brain has a lively empathy, which increases activity in multiple areas of your brain.
Stress Reduction
No matter how much stress you have at work, in your personal relationships or because of countless other problems in daily life, it disappears like snow in the sun when you lose yourself in a great book. A well-written novel can transport you to other worlds, while a captivating article distracts you and keeps you in the present moment, releases tensions and stress and allows you to simply relax.
Improved focus and concentration
In our internet-flooded world, attention is drawn in a million different directions at once as we try to multi-task every day.
In the span of 5 minutes, the average person divides their time between working on a task, checking email, chatting with a few people (via WhatsApp, Skype, Instagram, etc.), checking Twitter, monitoring their smartphone, and interaction with colleagues. This kind of ADHD-like behavior causes the stress rising and our productivity lowers.
When you read a book, all your attention is focused on the story – the rest of the world just disappears for a moment and you can immerse yourself in every detail in that moment.
Improving your memory
Reading a book requires you to remember an assortment of characters, their backgrounds, ambitions, histories and nuances, as well as the various plot changes and subplots that make their way through each story. That's quite a lot to remember, but brains are amazing things and can remember these things relatively easily.
Amazingly, any new memory you create forges new synapses (brain pathways) and strengthens existing ones, helping to recall short-term memory and stabilize moods. Handy, right?
Not all reading is the same
It is important to note that not all reading types are created equal. Preliminary findings from a series of experiments conducted at Stanford University indicate that literary reading, in particular, gives your brain a workout. MRI scans of people deep in a simple novel did show an increase in blood flowing to areas of the brain that control both cognitive and executive function — but this compares to the limited effects seen in participants casually leafing through a paragraph in a bookstore.
Reading with dyslexia
If you (or someone you know) has trouble reading or even has dyslexia, you can still reap the benefits of reading. In a previous study, researchers found that 100 hours of remedial reading lessons improved brain white matter quality in children between the ages of 8 and 10 who were below-average readers. White matter refers to the tissue that carries signals between areas of gray matter. This is where the processing of information takes place. The researchers' conclusion: These kids' brains began to rewire themselves in ways that could benefit the entire brain, not just the reading-focused temporal cortex.
The Effects of Reading on a Screen
The ability to read accurately is something that has value.
In the book Reader, Come Home, the author concludes that even in someone who reads for work, reading information on screens makes it harder for us to focus on the written word in books. One of the disadvantages of our beautiful information age.
“Unfortunately, this form of reading on screens is rarely continuous, sustained or with full concentration,” she writes. That creates a vicious circle. Without the constant exercise of our reading "muscles," the brain loses its ability to control the intricate processes that allow us to read deeply.
There is, of course, an obvious solution. Turn off your phone and computer more often, limit blue light (especially before going to sleep) and make time for it – simply by reading a book. Need help focusing? Try this brain foods to help your brain focus better.
Sources ao Brightside (link), life hack (link), neuron (link), penguin (link), TheHealthy (link)
