Feeling Rough? Read A Book

We all love to read for leisure and for pleasure but it turns out we’re being health conscious when we read, exercising that most important of muscles, the brain.

1, Reading relaxes you.
Even if it’s the scariest book ever written; no matter what the genre, reading a book after a long and stressful day has been shown to reduce stress by up to 68% according to a 2009 study by Sussex University.

2, Reading may help you fight Alzheimer’s disease.

Inactivity is a precursor to and a cause of Alzheimer’s; studies have indicated that exercising your brain through reading or puzzle solving can reduce your chances of developing Alzheimer’s by up to 2.5 times.

3, Reading makes you empathetic.

Who doesn’t want to be empathetic? Apparently those who read literary fiction are more understanding of other people, as they’ve been exposed to the way in which different people deal with problems through the pages of their books.

4, Reading before bed helps you sleep.

Just the same as for babies, creating a bedtime ritual signals your body that it’s time for sleep. Make it a habit to read for half an hour before bed each night and you’ll find it easier to nod off. This only works with real books though, an e-reader (backlit) has the opposite effect and can disrupt your sleep.

5, It’s good exercise.

Again, this only works with a real book; get yourself a nice Stephen King, or Tolstoy’s War and Peace, you’ll have biceps to rival Arnie’s.

So what are you waiting for? Reading is good for you, go grab a book!