Brain Power Reading

Brain Power

READING AND OTHER COGNITIVE EXERCISES BENEFIT YOUR MIND AND BODY

By Dylan Roche

“The more that you read, THE MORE THINGS YOU WILL KNOW. The more that you learn, THE MORE PLACES YOU’LL GO.”

These wise words from acclaimed children’s author Dr. Seuss in his book “I Can Read with my Eyes Shut” could easily sum up the spirit of Read Across America, an initiative driven by the National Education Association to motivate students to read.

Every year on March 2nd— Seuss’ birthday—schools, libraries, and community centers participate by offering programs that get kids to connect with the written word and celebrate the benefits of reading. As the National Education Association emphasizes, reading is important for improving language skills, developing empathy, being creative thinkers, and gaining knowledge.

But it’s not just children who benefit from reading, and it isn’t just educational benefits that readers will reap. Getting plenty of mental exercise is important for people of all ages because

it has a positive effect on many aspects of your health and well-being.

Most prevalent among those benefits is the way reading affects your cognitive health, defined by the National Institute on Aging as the ability to think, learn, and remember.

According to Harvard Medical School, forms of mental stimulation like reading are the best way for you to protect your mental abilities and ward off dementia. Mental activity is just as important for people as physical activity, and working specific cognitive functions—such as comprehending new information or remembering information— will increase your ability to perform those functions. As with other forms of strength and power, you need to use it or you might lose it.

Words Alive!, a nonprofit organization that strives to inspire commitment to reading, emphasizes that reading can help improve your mental health by increasing self-esteem, reducing symptoms of depression, and building better relationships. What’s known as bibliotherapy— popular in the United Kingdom and gaining traction in America—seeks to treat mild to moderate symptoms of mood-related conditions like depression and bipolar disorder by having patients read for pleasure.

By identifying with characters and their situations, readers feel less alone, experience an emotional catharsis, come to better understand their own life experiences, and gain perspective, thus making progress in their emotional healing.

But it’s not just your cognitive abilities and mental health that can benefit. Reading can be good for your physical health too. By pulling your attention away from everyday stressors, it lowers your heart rate and eases tension in your muscles, according to the University of Minnesota.

That said, the actual material you’re reading makes a big difference in whether it’s a good de-stressor. Novels and lighthearted nonfiction are good choices, whereas upsetting content— like the news—could have the exact opposite effect.

In fact, reading might help you live a longer life. Back in 2016, the Yale University School of Public Health noted a link between frequent reading and increased longevity after observing people who read three and a half hours a week or less, people who read more frequently, and people who didn’t read. Even after researchers took into account factors like wealth, education, cognitive ability, and other variables that might give bookworms an advantage, there was still a decreased rate of mortality in those who read more frequently.

Although it is the most common, reading is hardly the only cognitive workout people can undertake. Crossword puzzles, building models, concentration games, and learning a new language are all ways to keep the mind sharp. What’s most important, according to Harvard Medical School, is that the hobby is active—that is, it requires engagement, as opposed to passive activities like watching television.

As with physical activity, you have to be challenging yourself constantly to get stronger. Most children get plenty of mental activity because they’re constantly exposed to new experiences. Reading is an activity where adults should learn to follow the example kids set and strive to become lifelong learners. You mind and body will thank you for it.