When was the last time you picked up a book and started reading? Maybe you should after you read this post.
Neuroscientists have found reading enhances the connectivity in the brain and can improve memory. Reading adds memory storage capacity in your brain without any effort at memorization. Reading is more neurobiologically demanding than say processing images or speech and the brain. It is like a brain exercise that can also improve thinking skills, slows ageing and late age cognitive decline.
There are a whole list of benefits from reading especially memory-boosting effects, why don’t deep diver in this topic and look at some evidence and cool facts.
Why The Nun Study is Important to Memory and Old Age?
There was a study in 1986 by Dr. David Snowdon, an epidemiologist, and professor in Neurology, a group of Catholic nuns. The participants ranged from 75 to 106. Researchers review the autobiographic essays that the nuns have written since joining. It was found the nuns with essays that were more linguistic dense (e.g., complexity, vivacity, fluency) a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in old age. So what does this mean? People who read more and learn more help increase cognitive connectivity and improves memory. This helps maintain brain function at old age compared to those who don’t. Let’s look at more facts!
5 Interesting Facts About the Reading You Must Know
In previous studies, reading ability has been associated with improved health, education, socioeconomic status, and creativity. The ability to read well can directly improve some of these factors. There is a heap of reasons why reading books in particular physical books are important. Regular reading expands your knowledge, stimulates your brain and expands your vocabulary.
Fact 1 – Reading Increases Our Intelligence
The more you read, the more you know. Imagine reading biographies of famous and successful people like Warren Buffett or Elon Musk. Imagine what you can learn from life lessons from these people in a matter of a few hours from reading their biographies. Spending $20 to buy a book and a few hours to absorb the knowledge and wisdom of some of the most successful people in history is a good reason to start reading.
Fact 2 – Reading Can Improve Our Social Relationships
Getting lost in a good fiction can improve our social relationships. How? We’ll when you are deep into a novel, you are often deep into a character’s mind and you learn to see things from another person’s perspective. This ability to see the other person’s point makes you more empathic. By being able to understand others, your general social skills improve and as a result – your social relationship.
Fact 3 – Reading Can Make You More Relaxed
Reading six minutes a day is enough to reduce our stress by 68% according to research. Losing yourself in a book, it allows you to escape from the worries of the real world and live a life of the character in the Novel. By maintaining a short reading habit daily, you can reduce your stress levels – Imagine that! It takes less time than your average meditation session.
Fact 4 – Reading Helps You Sleep Better
By establishing a night reading ritual, you can improve your sleep. Consistently reading before bed (paperback books and not using an E-reader) will reduce the amount of time you watch TV or using your smartphone just before bedtime. This will help reduce the amount of blue light your eyes are exposed to. Exposure to blue light at night can throw your body clock out of whack, as a result impacting your quality of sleep.
Fact 5 – Reading improves analytical skills
Remember the last time you read a mystery novel, did you try to solve the mystery before the end of the novel? Did you try to work out the suspects by careful analysis of the evidence? Your ability to analyze the details of the plot is the same ability you would use to analyze anything else in life including at work.
Now that we have gone through some of the amazing facts about reading, let’s look at how different aspects of reading impact our memory.
Why Types of Reading Have Different Impacts?
How does reading Paperback vs E-Reader affect your memory?
A study found readers of a short story who read using an E-Reader were significantly worse at remembering the order of the events compares to those who read a paperback. The lead researcher of the study hypothesizes the difference between the reading the paperback and the E-Reader might be due to the gradual folding of the paper as you progress through a story that is kind of a sensory offload, supporting the visual sense of progress when you’re reading. In short, the inability to flip back pages, folding the pages or writing notes limit one’s sensory experience and reduces long-term memory of the text.
What is the difference between reading Fiction vs Non-Fiction?
Neuroscientists have discovered reading novels can improve your brain function. Being engrossed in a novel enhances connectivity in the brain and improves the reader’s ability to put themselves in another person’s shoes and flex the imagination in a way similar to the visualization of muscle memory. Reading non-fiction is more structured and more for absorbing information compare to the analysis of the characters and the plot of the story in fiction.
Does Frequency of Reading Matter?
Have a regular reading habit can help you boost your mind-muscle and maintain your memory. Just like regular exercise, regular reading can boost your memory, attention, and knowledge. Pick up a reading habit is a good way to maintain a healthy brain.
What happens when you read out loud to children?
According to a study, reading proficiency by third grade is the most significant predictor of high school graduation and career success. It is recommended parents to read aloud and talking about pictures and words can strengthen language skills, literacy development, and the parent-child relationship.
“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.” – Descartes
Other related questions
Does reading improve my IQ?
Exposure to more vocabulary through reading can definitely boost your IQ. In fiction reading, you can boost your social skills by being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. It can boost your analytical skills by following the plot of the story, in particular, mystery novels.
When reading non-fiction like biographies, you are able to learn from famous and successful people what they learned in a lifetime in a few hours of reading. Yes, reading definitely improves your IQ.
How can I improve my concentration and memory retention?
Read to Improve Concentration
There are several ways to improve your concentration and memory retention. When trying to concentrate at work, a good way to do some is work to listen to music. The best types of music are instrumental music, natural sounds, and binaural beats. These types of music will boost your concentration and brain power according to research. Music not only helps your concentrate at work, it can also help you focus while reading.
Listening to ambient music while reading is a good way to boost focus. Why not try it?
Exercise Your Brain to Improve Memory Retention
Create word pictures – By visualizing the spelling of a word in your head, then try to thinking of other words that start and end with the same letters, its a good way to give your brain a good workout. Other brain exercises such as doing maths in your head (instead of your calculator) can give your brain a good mental workout and boost memory retention.
Learn New Languages to Boost Your Memory Retention
Learning new languages can stimulate your brain by adding new vocabulary. Having a rich vocabulary has been linked to a reduction in the risk of cognitive decline. Since you left school, how many new words do you add to your vocabulary? Not many rights? Now Imagine how many new words you can add to your vocabulary learning a foreign language. This surely gives your brain a workout.
Cooking Can Stimulate Your Brain
Learning to cook can help by using a number of senses: smell, touch, sight, and taste. The more you use your brain whether hand-eye coordination, mental focus, and memory retention are the better. You can refine your hand-eye ability by knitting, drawing, painting and assembling puzzles. These are hobbies that require fine-motor skills and can give you a regular brain work out.
How Can I remember What I Have Read?
Fiction
It is important to know why you are reading the book. A good way to remember what you’ve read is to “Read the prologue“. Start with knowing what you want to get out of the book. Then, have a list of questions in mind before you read. This will stimulate your curiosity and while reading you will focus on finding out the answers to those questions. At the end of each chapter, take a few minutes and think to yourself – what was the story about in this chapter, who was the main character, what was the purpose of this chapter and how does it fit into the book. Taking the time to pause and think about each chapter is a great way to see if you’ve understood what you’ve read. Have questions ready before you start your next fiction
Non-Fiction
For a nonfiction book try to find out before you read the information or concepts you want to learn from the book before you start reading. A good way to do this is by reading the back of the book. Read a book summary and work out what you want to learn from the book. Have questions in mind and try to find the answers as you go through the book.
Now that we have learned how reading helps with our memory and also has a range of mental and health benefits, it is important to be read regularly. The best way is to have a habit of reading regularly.
How to Maintain a Reading Habit?
Picking up a book is not easy after we finished school – I mean for most of us. One in four Americans didn’t read a book last year. Of course, for those who already read regularly, this is not an issue. For others who were keen on reading but didn’t get to read, I was one of those people. I have bought a few books in the last ten years and they have been collecting dust on my bookshelves. I did have an intention to read them at the beginning of the year but ended up reading a few chapters and then stopped. So you may ask, how did I start reading regularly again?
New Motivation and starting a reading habit
It took a lot of motivation to start reading again. When I started I didn’t know there were so many benefits. All I was thinking was I wanted to learn new things and decided to read. It took a few months to get into a habit. The trick is to schedule a time to read. If I am very busy that day I will still read at least a few pages. Even for 3 minutes. I do this to condition my brain to recognize reading is like brushing my teeth. I will do it even if I am busy. I made my reading flexible aiming to read say 20 minutes in the evening but if I can do 20 minutes, I will be happy with 5 minutes. Currently, I read twice a day (for most days) instead of browsing useless articles online or watch some random YouTube videos. You may ask, where do you get the time. Depending on the survey, I’ve heard the average American spends 5 hours watching TV a day. Surely, you can take away a bit of your TV time to read a book.
The following are my suggestion to pick up a Reading Habit
1. Decide you want to read and the reason Why
This is very important to understand our motivations. We are emotional creatures and we won’t apply ourselves to our fullest unless we know why we do it. Same with reading a book, when we are motivated, curious and intrigue – i.e., we know the WHY, we will be able to remember the book. Start with Why by Simon Sinek is a great book I recently read. Sinek argues that when we start with WHY in everything that we do, we inspire action in a way that WHAT doesn’t. That’s because WHY engages our emotions, while WHAT engages our logical brain. This book gave me a lot of insight and I remember this book every time I start reading a new book.
2. For the first book, choose something you like and not too thick.
Try something simple and short. This is because you want to be able to read your first book and be able to feel a sense of accomplishment after your first book. I suggest something easy to read. Something you are really interested in. The goal here is to get you in the habit and read something you are looking forward to reading. Having something you want to read, easy to read and a flexible commitment to read (ie schedule time in the evening before you sleep but be flexible about the time spent on reading at first)
3. Schedule a time each day.
Either early morning or before you go to bed. This is extremely important to schedule this time. Make sure this is a time you don’t get interrupted. Start with 10 minutes a day for the first week. Build it up to 15 minutes the next week and 20 minutes for the third week. Once you get 3 to 4 weeks of regular reading you will have a solid reading habit.
Final Thoughts…
Prior research on this topic I knew reading is beneficial but did not know the massive benefits it has on us. I am even more motivated to maintain my current reading habit and keep reading and reading forever.