Research and scientific study has found many benefits of reading. These benefits can come from simply reading casually or from a more focused process of literature therapy.
Some benefits of reading casually are the following:
- Reading lowers your heart rate and physically relaxes you
- Reading reduces stress levels by 68 percent according to David Lewis at the University of Sussex, which is more than listening to music, having a cup of tea and taking a walk.
- It distracts your thoughts and improves mood
- Reading improves people’s mood, according to a survey by the “National Year of Reading,” a program that was conducted in England in 2008 to explore the benefits of reading in everyday life. 63% of participants reported they were more relaxed when reading.
- It increases intelligence and memory
- According to Dr. Ken Pugh of Haskins Laboratories at Yale University, because reading is more demanding on your brain that processing images or speech it exercises your brain in a way that other leisure activities won’t.
- It helps you solve problems
- Debbie McCulliss in her work Bibliotherapy: Historical and Research Perspectives states that it increases your ability to find workable solutions to identified problems as well as realize a variety of potential solutions
- It rewrites your brain to be more compassionate and develops empathy
- Keith Oatley described this process: “Fiction is the simulation of selves in interaction. People who read it improve their understanding of others. This effect is especially marked with literary fiction, which also enables people to change themselves. These effects are due partly to the process of engagement in stories, which includes making inferences and becoming emotionally involved, and partly to the contents of fiction, which include complex characters and circumstances that we might not encounter in daily life.”
- It helps you develop perspective
- American author James Baldwin stated, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”
- It develops a more honest perception of yourself and others
- Debbie McCulliss, again, in her work Bibliotherapy: Historical and Research Perspectives states that it enhances self-conception and discovery of others with similar problems or situations which creates a sense of belonging.