Benefits of Reading: Why You Should Read Every Day

11 Benefits Of Reading Books

1. Cognitive Mental Stimulation And Brain Exercising

Reading is great fun for many people, but it also has many benefits for your mental health in the form of thinking and understanding. By concentrating on the words and the storyline, it stimulates your brain and cognitive functions. This is particularly good to teach in elementary school. This sharpening of the mind will eventually heighten your focus when concentrating on something important. Elementary school students are at the age where they can benefit a lot from this mental stimulation.

Regular reading doesn’t just help with your critical thinking, but it also improves your brain function. Consider what happens when you work a muscle every day. That muscle grows and becomes much stronger than before. Reading books works much the same way for your mind. Consider how many people today are affected with Alzheimer’s disease. Working your brain will make you less likely to get alzheimer’s disease. Reading doesn’t just help with your critical thinking, but it also improves your brain function

2. Vocabulary And Knowledge Expansion

When reading books, you might come across a few words you don’t quite understand or even recognise. This confusion can lead you to look up the word and discover the definition. Because you didn’t know the word, to begin with, the act of searching for the definition helps your brain retain that new and exciting word, i.e. vocabulary expansion. Consider how far your vocabulary has come since you first learned to read. You now know many new words that are more intelligent sounding than when you first started your reading habits.

What does this do to benefit you? Well, after several days of regular reading and looking up new words you don’t understand, your vocabulary size will begin to expand one word at a time and language skills improve. Words and phrases, if you read every day, fill your brain with a new vocabulary that you might never have learned without reading books. This is proven in this study by the University Of Oregon.

3. Lower Levels Of Stress And Tension Relief

Most people know from experience that reading books is a great form of entertainment, but what you and those other people might not realise is that reading can help lower stress levels. You read that little fact right. The very act of it and focusing on the written word can help relieve your mind of anxiety and reduce your blood pressure. By pulling your mind away from the stress at hand, you can relax and let the stress levels melt away.

Stress can affect many parts of your daily life, and after long periods of intense stress levels, it can even be harmful to your overall health. Both novels, and other literature can help solve the issues that stress causes by allowing your mind and body to relax. Once you start reading books, you will start to focus, not on your stress, but on the words and storyline. In time, reading books will provide stress relief, making you feel better mentally and physically. Be sure to flip through print books the next time you’re feeling stressed.

4. Helps With Depression And Dysthymia

Reading, especially self-help books, can help ward off depressive occurrences and mood disorders. Just like with lowering your stress levels, it stimulates the part of the brain that deals with depression as well. Self-help books, full of information about how to better yourself and your state of mind, can help ease depression. Reading books can be extremely beneficial for someone who might suffer from depressive tendencies but not enough to need medication.

Decreasing depression might seem like an odd benefit, but the stimulation of the brain is extremely helpful when it comes to easing something of this nature. The feeling of happiness that also comes from hearing stories can brighten your mood, helping your day turn from sad to happy. Of course, it is not a permanent fix for a serious problem, but it can help ease the difficulties of depression. Consuming literature works much like a pain reliever might relieve joint pain.

Reading literature works much like a pain reliever might relieve joint pain

5. Memory Improvement And Better Focus

Though it has been mentioned earlier about how reading books can improve concentration and critical thinking, there is another part of mental health that it helps to improve. This point is stated by NCU on their blog. Our minds are thinking of a million different things all the time. Reading at least a little each day can improve your focus and your memory function. In this instance as well, it stimulates the brain, particularly the part of the brain that helps with memory and attention. Just like with physical exercise, it is a form of mental exercise that pushes your memory and focus to the limits.

How does your focus improve? Your focus is strengthened because it requires focus to read. When sitting down to read a book or magazine article, you will not understand what you are reading unless you’re focused. Consider what it is like when doing a math problem. To get it correct, you have to focus intently on that problem. The same goes for reading books. Your focus improves with your reading ability.

6. Strengthens Your Writing Abilities

Health is just one of the benefits of reading; it has benefits for other aspects of your life as well. These advantages help to make readers well-rounded individuals. Those who write, know the importance of reading books. Whether you write things for work or just for fun, heavy reading can improve your writing skills and abilities. There are several ways in which it can help strengthen your writing styles and skills, and each of these ways happens without you even realising it.

The best part about reading about how to improve your writing skills is there are various books written about the writing craft with information about all forms of writing. You can find these books at any bookstore, both online or in store. If you are a serious writer, you can read both novels or these amazing books on writing. Any form of reading can improve your writing tremendously.

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7. Enhances Your Imagination And Empathy

Although the enhancement of your imagination is not one of the more common benefits of reading, it can significantly increase your imagination. Consider the worlds that you are immersed to and the characters you come across while going through a mystery novel. Because of these worlds and characters, the part of your brain which houses your imagination is stimulated, causing you to imagine what the places and people look like just by picturing the words.

The imagination is a powerful tool that can be useful in all aspects of life. Though it might not be considered as often, the imagination is what allows us to be empathetic with people. This empathy can help on the job or even at home. With reading being an excellent way to improve your imagination, it is no wonder that books have been a favourite for so many years.

8. Boosts Your Sleep

Did you know that reading books can also help with your sleep? No, this doesn’t mean that it helps you fall asleep, but it does contribute to improving your overall sleep quality, pattern and restfulness. Reading, since it enables you to relax and de-stress, can help pull you into a deep and peaceful sleep. That sounds like it might be too good to be true, but reading can, in fact, help you fall asleep.

Reading before bed calms your body and mind, especially after a long and stressful day. Even if it is just a short amount—a chapter or two—the peacefulness that reading induces can help slip you into a deep and restful sleep. The relaxation that books can bring is just one of the wonderful benefits of reading every night to fall asleep.

9. Enjoy Your Entertainment And Peace

Perhaps the most well-known benefit of reading is the entertainment value of opening a book with crisp, white pages. Of course, the entertainment is typically what draws avid readers to pick up the next great book. In fact, it has been a solid form of entertainment for many years. Though reading is perfect for entertainment, there’s more to it than just the entertainment factor.

With the ability to entertain and induce peacefulness, reading has been a constant comfort to people of all ages and from all walks of life. For years, this entertainment factor has been at the forefront of literature. Books and other forms of writing are still just as popular today. The peaceful state of reading has been just an amazing as the entertainment. Many great readers and writers have mentioned the benefits of reading throughout their careers, being advocates.

By immersing yourself in a good book, you can almost feel any stress or worry melt away

10. Reading Can Brighten Your Day

Books can bring joy to your life on a daily basis. The act of reading is a great benefit both to mental and physical health, but it can also brighten your day. Sometimes, the days can be stressful and worrisome, but when you lay down at night and curl up with a good book, it lifts your spirits along with that stress and worry. Or maybe start your day or your morning commute with a book you love.

From vacations to a quick moment while waiting in the carpool line, reading is an effective means of relaxation in an otherwise busy world. If you love to get up early, you should start your day with a little light reading. Your day will be just a little bit brighter, and you can breathe easy. Let books take a little weight off your shoulders so you can enjoy the things around you. Take a few moments for yourself and just read.

11. Helps You To Broaden Your Mind

Books allow you to see things from a completely different perspective. Reading about a certain culture, for example, can help you to understand how that culture differs from your own. You might not agree with that culture’s perspective, but at least you’ll look at things from a new angle.

If you were to read a book or article on the matter written by a Muslim woman, you could learn to start seeing things from her perspective. It’s a big world out there, and reading is one way to expand your mind to all the possibilities.

Conclusion

Books are amazing things that can be both entertaining and beneficial to your health. They are almost like tools to a healthy lifestyle. The books that you choose to read is your preference, which can range from literary fiction to romance to non-fiction. Whatever you choose to read, you can count on the multiple benefits of reading to help both your mind and body.

It’s easy to enjoy books when you’re merely reading for pleasure. Heavy readers will always have a book in their hands as well. As a reader, you probably don’t think of the great benefits of reading either, but they are there even when you don’t realise it. So why is reading important? From stress relief to improved memory, reading is hugely beneficial in all aspects of our lives. Reading is a great way to improve yourself all around.

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