Why Should You Read Every Day: Scientific Benefits of Reading Books

Reading books daily is very important to you because it helps to expand your mind and give you more ideas. Reading has both physical and mental health benefits and these benefits can last for a lifetime.

Benefits of Reading Books
Scientific Benefits of Reading Books

Why Should You Read Every Day?

Reading literally changes your mind. It is for the brain as an exercise in relation to the body.

Reading gives us the freedom to move around in space, time, and history, and gives us a deeper perspective on ideas, concepts, feelings, and knowledge.


Reading practice includes many mental functions, including visual and auditory processes, and aspects such as fluency, comprehension, and much more.

According to one study, the act of reading and speaking a text aloud is a more effective way to remember information than reading it silently or just hearing it read out loud.


Reading regularly stimulates optimal patterns of brain development, which helps build strong pathways in the brain, thus building language, literacy, and social and emotional skills that can have lifelong health benefits.


Reading helps develop your thoughts, Improves concentration and memory, enhances your imagination and empathy, gives you endless knowledge and lessons while keeping your minds active and strengthens your writing abilities.


Reading every day also has some amazing health benefits, including cutting stress, helping with depression and dysthymia, lowering blood pressure and heart rate and reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease and late-life cognitive decline.


Reading is like thinking, praying, talking to friends, expressing your thoughts, listening to other people's thoughts, enjoying a beautiful view, or taking a walk on the beach. 

When you read, your mind is activated, and it grows, changes, and creates new relationships between things, and different patterns depending on the material you are reading.


Why is Reading So Important?

Reading is very important to you because it helps to expand your mind and give you more ideas.

If you are aware of the purpose and process of reading, you have to decide on the styles and methods that need to be applied to best suit the purpose and reading materials.


Decoding the message is very important because without decoding the message the reader fails to understand it.

The purpose of reading is to analyze what has been read, remember what has been read, and follow technical instructions, to gain an in-depth understanding, or critically evaluate the material.


Research shows that reading not only helps develop fluid intelligence (the ability to think logically, solve problems, spot patterns and meanings) but also develops reading comprehension (comprehension of a readable text) and emotional intelligence. 

And when reading improves from fluid intelligence, this, in turn, improves reading comprehension.


Research at Stanford University has shown a neurological difference between reading for the purpose of enjoyment and reading with focus, such as reading for an exam. Depending on the reading pattern, blood flows to different nerve regions.


Also surprisingly, a 2011 study showed an overlap between the regions the brain uses to comprehend stories and networks designated for interacting with others.


Reading Strengthens Your Brain

Your brain decodes a series of abstract symbols and converts its results into complex thoughts, and that's an impressive process.

The reading brain can be likened to the collective effort of a symphony orchestra, as different regions of the brain work together like musical instruments to maximize your ability to decipher written speech.


Using magnetic resonance imaging scans, researchers have confirmed that the reading includes a complex network of circuits and signals in the brain. As your reading ability matures, these networks become stronger and more complex.

Reading practice includes several mental functions, including visual and auditory processes, and distinguishing phonemes (sounds), and includes aspects such as fluency, comprehension, and much more. And the same nerve regions that a particular experience excites are also activated when reading about it.


Reading changes the structure of the brain, says "Marian Wolf", a cognitive scientist and reading scholar, in her book "Proust And The Squid: The Story And Science Of The Reading Brain": Humans invented reading only five thousand years ago, and with this invention, the brain was rearranged, which expanded the ways we think, and this, in turn, left its mark on the mental development of the human race".

She adds: "The inventions of our previous ancestors would not have been possible without the mind's superior ability to create new connections between its existing parts, a process that occurs due to the brain's flexibility and its ability to form anew through experiences."


Haskins Labs' research for "the Science of the Spoken and Written Word" indicates that reading, unlike watching or listening to media, gives the brain more time to stop, think, process, and imagine.

In addition, reading can slow the mental decline that occurs with age, and maintain brain health.


Reading Increases Your Emotional Intelligence

Literary fiction is a social experience, and the process of reading also plays an important social function. When you read literature, you imagine the event, situation, people and details described by the writer, and you become completely immersed in the story.


Famous novelist Anne Lamott says in her book, “Bird By Bird: Some Instructions On Writing And Life,”

“For some of us, books are as important as nearly anything on planet Earth. What a miracle it is that out of those deaf, flat, small square sheets of worlds flow from beyond worlds, singing to you, comforting you, calming you, or arousing you. Books help us understand who we are and how we should behave. Books show us what society and friendship mean, they teach us how to live and how to die”.


Psychologists David Comer Kidd at Harvard University and Emanuele Castano at the University of Trento have shown that reading literary fiction develops the ability to monitor and understand people's feelings, which is an important skill in managing complex social relationships.

“What great writers do is turn you into a writer,” says Kidd. In literary fiction, incomplete features of characters urge your mind to try to understand the minds of others. ”


The researchers also found that reading a novel activates the connections in the brain responsible for receiving language. 

Dr. Gregory Burns Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in Dunedin, says: “The neurological changes that we found linked to physical sensation and movement systems suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the protagonist’s body. We already knew that good stories could put you in someone else's shoes, albeit in an implicit sense. Now we see that something biological might happen. ”


Reading Improves Concentration and Memory 

In 30 minutes, the average person can divide his time between busy with a task, checking e-mail, talking to colleagues, following social media, and interacting with notifications.

Reading not only improves the connections in the brain but also increases attention span, concentration, and memory. If you are having difficulty concentrating, reading can increase your attention span.


When you read a book, all of your attention is focused on the story or coming to a better understanding of a particular topic, the rest of the world is absent, and you can immerse yourself in every little detail of your book.

Best creative writing books encourage you to think in series, so the more you read, the more your brains can link cause to effect.


If you ride for transportation, for example, try reading for 15 to 20 minutes before you go to work, and you will be surprised how much better your ability to focus will be when you get to work.

Reading helps increase overall brain function and helps protect memory and thinking skills, especially as you get older.

Reading every day can increase memory and slow cognitive decline in later life.


Read Your Favorite Books
Benefits of Reading with children
Reading books with your children has many benefits

In a world where information is new, reading becomes the best source for continuous learning, knowledge, and acquisition of that currency. 

Reading requires patience, persistence, and determination, and is just like any skill you should practice continuously and regularly.

Research has shown that a person who reads every day gets better at it over time and feels more positive too. 

Reading helps improve memory and empathy and critical thinking skills.


Reading with your children builds warm and happy bonds with books, enhances their later school performance, builds good communication skills, strengthens the prediction engine, and increases the likelihood that children will find reading enjoyable in the future.

Reading every day also has some amazing health benefits, including cutting stress, helping with depression, and reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease.


Whether you prefer reading on your smartphone or holding a book in your hand, make time and space for reading.

The next time you choose a book to read, pause to think about what you're reading, as the lines you read may affect you more than you can imagine.


Benefits of Reading Books: Summary

Reading books daily is very important to you because it benefits both your physical and mental health, and these benefits can last for a lifetime.

Research shows that regular reading:

  • Strengthens your brain connectivity.
  • Increases your ability to empathize.
  • Expands your emotional intelligence.
  • Boosts your vocabulary and comprehension.
  • Improves concentration and memory.
  • Fights stress and depression symptoms.
  • Prevents dementia and cognitive decline as you age.
  • lowers blood pressure and heart rate.
  • Aids in sleep readiness.
  • Contributes to live longer.

The Scientific World

The Scientific World is a Scientific and Technical Information Network that provides readers with informative & educational blogs and articles. Site Admin: Mahtab Alam Quddusi - Blogger, writer and digital publisher.

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