Benefits of reading

I do enjoy reading. However, with my job duties I read all day and five days a week. So, with this said, sometimes at home I choose another avenue to relax.
However, when there is nothing interesting on television to watch, I do like to curl up with a good book. In my younger years, I enjoyed reading romances. However I now prefer a good suspense novel.
After reading the following, courtesy of Newspaper Metro, reading gives people a “place to escape” and a relaxation period from stress and worries. Check out our local library, which has many good books to read.
The benefits of reading:
Many people are avid readers, feeling that a good book remains the most entertaining form of escapism. But reading provides more than just an opportunity to leave the daily grind behind.
While many people may read to immerse themselves in something other than a movie or a television show, they may not know about all the additional benefits they are enjoying when cuddling up with a good book.
– Reading can improve brain function. A recent study from researchers at Emory University discovered that reading a novel can improve brain function in various ways.
During the study, researchers found that reading fiction improves connectivity in the brain. In addition, reading fiction improved readers’ ability to put themselves in other peoples’ shoes, which might help them relate better to people in both the present and future.
– Reading can benefit long-term brain health. While readers engrossed in a great book might only be worried about what’s coming on the next page, the benefits to reading are much more long-term than the next chapter. Researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago found that reading is one of a handful of mentally stimulating activities that can benefit brain health in old age.
In their Rush Memory and Aging Project, researchers examined nearly 300 elderly men and women, giving them tests of memory and thinking throughout the final years of their lives. When participants, who were surveyed as to how often they engaged in mentally stimulating activities such as reading, passed away, their brains were examined for signs of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Researchers discovered that the participants who engaged in mentally challenging activities most often had slower rates of memory decline. In addition, even those who had symptoms of brain damage that arecommonly associated with Alzheimer’s and dementia seemed to benefit from the stimulation that mentally challenging activities produced.
– Reading can help reduce stress. Another big benefit of reading is its relationship to stress. According to a 2009 study from researchers at the University of Sussex in England, reading can reduce stress by up to 68 percent.
In addition, reading might help relieve that stress even faster than other forms of stress relief because it allows for a more immediate escape from the stress of daily life.
·– Reading can help you get a more restful night’s sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, engaging in a calming activity for an hour before going to bed can help your body wind down and ready itself for sleep.