Why Reading Book Is Important?

Reading books is beneficial because it can significantly reduce stress, improve your focus and concentration, enhance your vocabulary, boost your memory, stimulate your imagination, and even contribute to better sleep quality by providing a relaxing escape into another world; essentially, it can improve your mental well-being and cognitive abilities.

Here are the benefits of reading that illustrate the importance of reading books. When you read every day you:

Reading Improve Your Memory

Are you always forgetting things? Do you have a bunch of to-do lists, but you can’t quite remember what’s on them? Fear not – one of the advantages of reading books is that it can improve your memory.

When you read a non-fiction book, you also consume an enormous amount of information on the subject you’re reading about. Similarly, whenever you read a novel, you have to remember tons of information about the story’s plot and subplots, the characters and their relationships, and the environment in which the story takes place.

That’s a lot of information! All of this new information creates new memories. And every new memory creates synapses or strengthens old ones.

The upshot? Reading every day can improve your memory – it can help you learn how to store new information and recall memories more effectively.

Reduces Your Stress

According to a 2009 study conducted at Sussex University, reading reduces your stress levels by up to 68%. In as little as six minutes of being immersed in a book, your heart rate slows, your blood pressure lowers, and your muscles begin to relax.

To enjoy the long-term benefits of reading, research suggests that thirty minutes of daily reading dramatically impacts the physical symptoms of stress. It doesn’t matter what type of book you read—including audiobooks—as long as you’re able to focus on reading without interruptions.

Reading with your child can also decrease your stress while increasing your parent-child bond. A 2020 study from the Journal of the American Psychological Association found that parents who read to their children daily from the ages of six to eighteen months had lower stress levels, were more sensitive to their children’s needs, and were warmer to their children.

The shared reading time sharpens the emotional bond you have with your children, while the lower stress levels help elevate your mood, leading to an increase in other behaviors such as patience, tolerance, and empathy.

Cultivating a daily reading habit can not only help keep you grounded, especially when you’re facing difficult times, it can become cherished bonding time for you and your children.

Promote Wellness

While an apple an day can keep the doctor away, a book a week can keep the grim reaper at bay.

Reading has an unexpected bonus of increasing your lifespan. A 2016 study published in Social Science & Medicine journal found that reading for at least 30 minutes a day extended the lifespan of participants by an average two years, with book readers who read more than three hours every week at an advantage over their peers who read magazines and newspapers.

Booktrust, the UK’s largest reading charity, conducted a survey of 1500 adult in the UK and found that people who read books regularly are on average more satisfied with life, happier, and more likely to feel that the things they do in life are worthwhile.

In the case of mild to severe depression, reading self-help books or being read to can assist in recovery. While books cannot replace the role of psychologists and therapists, in the case of mild depression, bibliotherapy can be as effective as standard medical care.

In fact, UK organisation Reading Well has a selection of book titles and evidence-backed booklists endorsed by medical experts to promote health and wellbeing.

Reading Improves Literacy

Have you ever read a book where you came across an unfamiliar word? Books have the power to improve your vocabulary by introducing you to new words.

The more you read, the more your vocabulary grows, along with your ability to effectively communicate.  Additionally, reading improves writing skills by helping the reader understand and learn different writing styles.

Reading Improves Sleep

By creating a bedtime routine that includes reading, you can signal to your body that it is time to sleep. Now, more than ever, we rely on increased screen time to get through the day.

Therefore, by setting your phone aside and picking up a book, you are telling your brain that it is time to quiet down. Moreover, since reading helps you de-stress, doing so right before bed helps calm your mind and anxiety and improve the quality of sleep.