Get Book-ed: Reading is Good for Your Health

Are you getting tired of Twitter? Bored of staring at your telly box? Maybe it’s time you sat down and cracked open a good book. Why? Well, did you know that reading can actually improve your health? Yes, seriously.

The Daily Mail reports that reading not only lowers stress levels, it also lengthens your attention and improves our ability to think clearly.

“Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end – a structure that encourages our brains to think in sequence, to link cause, effect and significance,” said Baroness Susan Greenfield, a noted Neuroscientist.

“It is essential to learn this skill as a small child, while the brain has more plasticity, which is why it’s so important for parents to read to their children. The more we do it, the better we get at it,” she added.

Reading a book before bed can actually make you sleep better and occasionally sitting down with a book instead of a laptop can enrich our relationships because it helps us learn how to empathise with others.

“In a computer game, you might have to rescue a princess, but you don’t care about her, you just want to win,” said Baroness Greenfield.

“But a princess in a book has a past, present and future, she has connections and motivation. We can relate to her. We see the world through our eyes,” she added.

Reading can keep your brain active and prevent it from slowing down as you get older.

Getting lost in a good book also gives our brains a serious workout and keeps them active and in good shape as we grow older.

“Reading exercises the whole brain,” said John Stein, a professor of neuroscience at Magdalen College in Oxford.

“When we “get lost” in a good book, we’re doing more than simply following a story. Imagining what’s happening is as good at activating the brain as “doing” it,” he added.

In other words, our brains can’t tell the difference between us getting up and doing something or just reading about doing something. Either way our brain is stimulated into thinking that we’re actually carrying out a specific task.

And if that wasn’t all, reading can also stave off feelings of depression, loneliness and it can help us to forget our problems.

In fact back in 2009, researchers at the University of Sussex discovered that just six minutes of reading every day can reduce stress levels by more than two-thirds – this is more than listening to music or going outside for a walk.

It’s incredible, isn’t it? So what do you think ladies? Are you tempted to ditch the TV for a new read?