12-Year-Long Study Reveals the Greatest Benefit of Reading
Reading is simply a life-saving habit
Hate reading? Specifically, hate reading books? It’s time to reconsider that position.
Yes, we know all the cliché benefits readers enjoy: you’ll be more entertained, you’ll expose yourself to different worlds, you’ll learn a great deal of life-transforming lessons, etc.
But beyond all these excellent goodies, research has found arguably the most important benefit of reading. And it literally bothers on life and death, drawing a line that separates readers from non-readers.
Over 12 years, researchers Avni Bavishi, Martin D. Slade, and Becca R. Levy worked with 3,635 participants to track their reading patterns and the effects these patterns had on their lives in that span.
“After adjusting for relevant covariates including age, sex, race, education, comorbidities, self-rated health, wealth, marital status, and depression, book reading contributed to a survival advantage,” the researchers found.
“Book readers experienced a 20% reduction in risk of mortality over the 12 years of follow up compared to non-book readers. These findings suggest that the benefits of reading books include a longer life in which to read them.”
What About Books Brings This Good News?
The researchers explain.
“Reading books tends to involve two cognitive processes that could create a survival advantage. First, it promotes deep reading, which is a slow, immersive process; this cognitive engagement occurs as the reader draws connections to other parts of the material, finds applications to the outside world and asks questions about the content presented.”
But that’s not all.
“Second, books can promote empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence, which are cognitive processes that can lead to greater survival,” the researchers discovered.
Books v Magazines, Newspapers, and Periodicals
Does the magic only happen with books? Where do newspapers, magazines, and periodicals stand? Well, not at the same spot. But not too far behind as to prove insignificant.
“Cognitive engagement might also occur while reading thought-provoking periodicals, however this engagement is more likely to occur when reading books due to the tendency of book authors to present themes, characters and topics in greater length and depth. Accordingly, we hypothesized that the survival advantage would be stronger when reading books compared to periodicals,” noted the researchers.
However you slice it, reading isn’t only a helpful habit, it could prove life-saving.
Physical or Digital
The study was silent on the newer mediums by which people read books these days — ebooks and audio formats. Wouldn’t it be enlightening to know what each approach does to readers?
But for the time being, whatever your favorite option, keep at it. You’re probably not too far off the mark.
How Often Do You Have to Read to Enjoy These Benefits?
If you haven’t cultivated a reading habit from infancy, or at least in your pre-teen years, it could be hard to pick it up further down the course of life, where adulthood responsibilities and pressures mount up.
Thankfully, you needn’t average two books a day to enjoy those benefits.
The researchers note a chapter a day is a good starting point. If that’s too much to handle — because chapter lengths vary by author and publisher — reading for at least 30 minutes each day is a comparable alternative.
Far from giving you another lecture on time management and self-development, think of it — we have 24 hours a day. And it’s not impossible to carve 30 minutes out of that.
If one 30-minute sprint is too long, you can split that into two 15-minute sessions or three 10-minute sessions. That’s more manageable.
You can also build reading streaks to heighten your motivation. Like many writers force themselves to write something every day, you can also challenge yourself to read something every day.
Yes, some days, life will take its course. And it’s okay to miss a day here and there. When that happens, learn to make it up on the next trip.
Is that a little secret the most prolific authors have known all these years, ensuring we never run out of books to read? Who’s to say? And we have them to thank for setting the stage.
It’s our turn to take up the challenge and grab a chapter daily. Or thirty minutes a day. Or whatever works best for you, as those options may not always be available.
If you’ve lost your love for books, for reading, there’s no better time to rekindle that relationship. Reading something is far better than reading nothing. If there ever was a must-adopt habit!
Not only will you learn new things and support your favorite writers, but you might also just be adding extra years to your life, word after word, line after line, page after page, chapter after chapter.
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