For some of us, reading is second nature, a habit we look forward to. For others, this may not be the case. But, whichever group of people you are, there many important benefits to reading!
Surprisingly, these are not only mental health benefits, but there are even physical benefits!
Why is this important to know?
We’re constantly bombarded with information – the newest diet that will make us healthier, the newest mental health trick to make us well-rounded individuals. But which of these, if any, are real and tested?
Some maybe, but the research behind the benefits of reading is amazing and well documented.
Knowing these important benefits of reading is the first step in making the kind of life you wish to lead. Knowledge is power, and it’s the first step! Which is why I’ve written up the top 6 most important benefits of reading!
If you wish to have a well-rounded and healthy lifestyle, it’s important to know that reading is part of the puzzle. That reading can help in your quest for a healthy and happy life!
Related posts:
- Impactful and Unique Books To Expand Your Mindset in 2020
- Burnout Prevention Journal for the Busy Professional
- Overcome Fear of Failure and Develop Grit
So let’s get into it!
Table of Contents
Top 6 Most Important Benefits of Reading: Why you should care
1. Increased Empathy
Empathy is the act of understanding, being aware of, and sensitive to the feelings, thoughts and experiences of another person.¹
Being empathetic allows us to navigate social situations successfully and with tact.
Reading fiction has been shown to increase empathy by “taking us” and transporting us into the lives of the characters we read.² By experiencing their experiences, we develop a way to understand and sympathize with these characters, thus building empathy.
It challenges us, and makes us confront prejudices we may have had regarding certain people and situations. By allowing us to enter these characters’ lives and their social situations, we gain a better understanding and sensitivity to their problems. We develop greater empathy.
2. Increased Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is “the capability of individuals to recognize their own emotions and those of others, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, and use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.”³
In this sense, it is almost an extension or continuation of empathy.
The role of emotional intelligence is increasingly being seen in various aspects of our lives. We see the role of emotional intelligence in our interactions with our family members at home to the interactions we have with colleagues and business associates at work.
Reading helps increase our emotional intelligence by increasing self-awareness. It also allows us to better articulate the issues and problems we find ourselves facing.⁴
3. Helps You Relax and Helps You Sleep
How many of us can say that we were stressed in the last week? Heck, in the last day?
A study has shown that reading decreases stress levels by 68%.⁵ Interestingly, it doesn’t matter what book we are reading as long as we lose ourselves in it.
So, it doesn’t matter if you like fantasy fiction, romantic novels, or books about the Napoleonic Wars as. As long as you enjoy what you are reading, your stress levels can decrease!
With such busy lives, burnout affects many of us. The result of chronic stress and insufficient coping mechanisms burnout can affect our ability to live happy and healthy lives. Reading can allow us to decrease our stress levels, thus preventing burnout.
Personally, I love reading non-fiction
With greater relaxation, sleep can become better. Usually if reading is a ritual before bed, it can signal to our brain that it is time to sleep. This can allow our brain to go into sleep mode, allowing us to fall asleep quicker.⁶
The only catch here is that it is better to read a paper book, rather than an ebook, which will emit light. Light before sleep has been shown to prevent sleep as it signals to your brain that it is daytime (even if the light is artificial).
4. Leads to a Better and More Productive Life
It’s been shown that when we read we come more productive and better members of society. We begin to vote, become more involved in our kids’ education, and we strive and are able to get better jobs.⁷
This may be linked to the fact that reading allows us to broaden our horizons and learn things we don’t otherwise know. Whatever the reason, if we want to advance in our lives, reading is a great and enjoyable way to accomplish this!
5. Builds Up Your Cognitive Reserve
What is cognitive reserve?
Cognitive reserve is a learnt ability of our brain to improvise and find alternative ways to get a job done. It’s built over time and it’s important because it allows us to stay sharper longer.⁸
Research has shown that some people who were seemingly well functioning in life actually had significant degenerative changes in their brains. But these changes didn’t manifest themselves, because the person had significant cognitive reserve.⁸
The way I look at cognitive research is backup. Even if part of the brain starts to degenerate, our cognitive reserve can offset these changes and keep us sharper longer.
Reading increases cognitive reserve in a few ways.
First, with reading, we increase our vocabulary, which causes a more resilient mind, which in turn builds cognitive reserve.⁹
Second, when we read (especially chapter books), our brain has to make connections and think critically. The result of this is that our brain makes new pathways that over time promote quicker thinker, and prevent cognitive decline.⁹
So to stay sharp or increase the speed of thinking, make sure to read books, preferably chapter books!
6. Live Longer
It has been shown that people who read 30 mins per day over several years lived 2 years longer than those who didn’t read at all.⁹
How exciting is that!
Furthermore, it didn’t matter if the person read fiction, non-fiction, or prose.⁹ So grab whatever book you are most excited to read right now and enjoy it knowing that you may be literally adding days to your life.
Conclusion
So we’ve gone over the top 6 most important benefits of reading. We’ve seen the incredible and important health benefits of reading and what it can do for us.
From becoming more empathetic and increasing your emotional intelligence, to living longer while being sharp as a tack – what exciting discoveries!
So if you’re here, you probably already love reading.
However, if you’re not totally sold, or perhaps have been putting it off because there seem to be too many more important things to do, feel free to grab a book, cozy up in a chair with a cup of warm coffee and enjoy your book, knowing you are benefiting your health and future.
On this note, I’m going to be creating a reading recommendations list. It’s going to be a list of books I’ve read that I recommend for various reasons. Some may be beneficial for physical health or perhaps mental health. Others I will select because they encourage us to take us look at the way we see the world and question our assumptions.
They will all be exciting and well worth the read! Sign up to my newsletter to make sure you are the first to hear when the first recommendations come out! It’s going to be an exciting one!
Next Steps
Let me know how your health journey is going. I love hearing from you so feel free to leave a comment below or email me. What books have you read recently and have you noticed a difference in your health at all?
Also, if you have any questions, or if there is a topic you are dying to know more about, give me a shout-out through one of the social media options on the side or leave a comment below!
Lastly, make sure to sign up to my newsletter to get the latest insights and inspiration to get you to living the life you dream of!
Have a wonderful week everyone!
That’s cool that reading can decrease tour stress levels so much. I have been feeling a bit stressed lately, so it might be nice to be able to take a break and do something that could reduce that stress. I’ll have to take a look into some books that I might be interested in reading that I could read when I get a chance.
That’s cool that reading can help you to release a lot of stress. I have been pretty stressed out at work lately, and it is starting to affect m sleep a bit. I’ll have to consider getting some books to read before I go to bed so I could hopefully unwind a bit.
Hey Tyler!
I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been stressed out at work lately! I hope it’s a temporary thing. It’s rough when stress starts to affect our sleep. As a fellow insomniac, I can relate 🙂
I agree, it is really cool that reading can decrease our stress! And when it’s a good book, it’s super enjoyable too!
It’s been a while since you commented, did you end up getting a book? 🙂
Also, check out this article, it may have some useful tips to decrease stress:
https://www.espressoshotofmedicine.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-burnout-prevention/
I got a lot of useful tips about important tip from this article. Thank you very much!
I have another article about important tip. Maybe you will be interested in it^_^
Smart Parenting Tips For Effective, Intelligent Parenting – WiserParenting
Thank you Lity! I’ll be sure to check it out 🙂
It’s so interesting how reading can help you to empathize with the feelings and experiences of others and understand how your actions affect the people around you. Ever since I graduated from college last month, I have had a lot of spare time that I am not used to having. Reading sounds like a great hobby to pick up since it can benefit me both mentally and emotionally.
Hey Lyla!
First of all, CONGRATULATIONS on graduating from college! What an amazing milestone!
I can imagine, after the hustle and bustle of wrapping up college, finishing exams, how strange it is to have a lot spare time all of the sudden.
I agree, it is a great time to read – especially things that you find interesting. Whether it is fiction, or some sort of non-fiction topic that you didn’t get a change to learn about in college.
It’s interesting how you mention empathizing especially. I recently read All The Light You Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. I don’t remember the last time I was able to empathize and understand two conflicting sides so well in a historical fiction novel. Would highly recommend if you’re interested in empathy 🙂
There are some suggestions here: https://www.espressoshotofmedicine.com/impactful-and-unique-books-to-expand-your-mindset-in-2020/
But really, reading anything you find interesting at this time is so exciting! Go for it! 🙂
And again, highest Congratulations on graduating!! 🙂
Thank you for explaining that reading can help us to decrease the levels of stress we have in our lives. For me personally, I have always enjoyed traveling and learning about the world through books. So if I am to start reading more books, I think I would want to get texts that are about the world and the different things that are in it.
Hi Thomas!
My pleasure! It really is interesting when we realize how much reading can help in so many areas of our lives.
I know what you mean about travel book and books about the world. Actually, I recently bought a book that might be interesting to you. It’s “Travel Goals” by Lonely Planet. It’s so different from other travel books that I’ve seen. This one steps away from the Paris’s and London’s of the world and gives you ideas and info for interesting trips, like “Trek with Berbers in Morocco” or “meditate with masters in Thich Nhat Hanh” in Plum Village, France, or go “Bungee Jumping” in Switzerland. And each gives you a website and info where you can learn more. Really loving the book and seeing there is so much more to see in the world than I originally thought!
In case you’re interesting! 🙂 Hope you’re enjoying whatever travel/world book you’re reading now! 🙂
It’s great to learn that emotional intelligence can be increased by reading more books. My wife is wanting to increase her be more in tune with herself and she was wondering how she could increase her emotional intelligence. I’ll be sure to tell her that she should start reading more books to increase her emotional intelligence.
Hi Aaron, yes reading books can definitely increase our emotional intelligence! That’s a great idea to let her know how reading books can help. Don’t forget though, we can all use a bit of an increase when it comes to emotional intelligence so don’t forget to work on yourself as well. 🙂
I like that you said reading books could increase the emotional intelligence of a person since they would be more emphatic and self-aware. My daughter has a hard time recognizing and controlling her own emotions. Perhaps it would be great to buy some books for her to increase her emotional intelligence. Thanks!
It sure was nice when you said that reading could reduce stress levels by 68% based on a study. With this in mind, I will be sure to shop for books that could help me get distracted and bring me to another world. I could imagine how reading could allow me to relax, especially after a day of work.
I loved that you said that reading decreases stress levels by 68% based on a study. This is something that I will consider because I always suffer from stress and a restless mind, especially at night. There are even times that I can’t sleep at all. Maybe, it will be nice to find a book that is positive and inspirational to calm my mind,
It caught my attention when you said that reading can reduce your stress level by 68% and therefore prevent burnout. With this in mind, I will consider shopping for antique American print books tomorrow afternoon. I have been suffering from restless nights due to stress caused by my personal life and work.
My favorite part of your blog is when you said that your stress level can be decreased by 68% when you read. With this in mind, I will consider finding a series that I can read at least every night to help me relax. I have been dealing with sleepless nights due to stress at work for the past two weeks.