Impact of Reading Books on your Mental health

The habit of reading books started in the 11^th century and in spite of the digital era of 21^st century, still persisting among people in the form of digital books in their smart devices. Reading Books has been scientifically proven to improve the physical and mental health as well. A research study was conducted; whereby functional MRI scans were used to measure the effect of people reading books. The result of the brain scan showed that throughout the research period and afterwards, the brain connectivity increased. The children psychologists around the world reason that reading books by children and parents imposes better mental health among the children’s and boosts a warm relationship with their parents.

Reading books also help the children to improve their vocabulary, improves self-esteem and strengthens the communication skill and the brain activity. In today’s fast pacing world, the need for empathy is seen as a must characteristic for establishing a good social relationship among people. Researchers call this characteristic as “Theory of Mind”. A study has been conducted among the people who read fictional, non-fictional stories and nothing and found that the people reading fictional stories for a long term tends to have better “Theory of Mind” and these characteristics can help them overcome the barriers in today’s social relationships.

Some people might have heard about “Mathew effect”, a term that refers the biblical verse 13:12: “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. “The “Mathew effect” sums up the idea that rich get richer and poor get poorer. This concept can also be applied to reading books enable young children to enhance their mental health. Around the world, the employers are expecting to hire people with better vocabulary and communication skills. Reading books is proven to be one of the best way to improve vocabulary and communication skills.

We are living in a fast paced world, where in the level of stress is more among both young and old ones. A research study showed that reading books lowered the blood pressure, heart rate and psychological distress like Yoga and Humour. Western schools and educational institutions have mandated reading books among their learners to reduce their stress level in some countries like Finland, Canada etc.

Reading books before night time can also help people suffering insomnia. But recommended reading printed books rather than reading books from digital devices. The latter may cause eye and other health related problems. The researchers have also proved that the age old method of reading from “Printed books” is better than “e-books” reading from digital devices.

A research study was conducted among senior citizens with reading books and senior citizens who read only newspapers and magazines for a period of over 12 years. The study result indicated that people with reading books survived longer than people reading newspapers and magazines.

COVID-19 pandemic have increased depression symptoms among people around the world. People suffering depression often feel isolated and lonely. The mental health experts recommend reading fictions and non-fiction books to alleviate the depression symptoms. The fictional books enable the readers to escape temporarily into an imaginary world and travel with the imaginary characters whereas non fictional books enable its readers to learn strategies from experts to handle the depression.

Reading can be encouraged in many forms: reading fictional books, historical books, self-help books, non-fictional books, biographies of great personalities, blog reading, joining book club. In olden days, people need to visit library for lending and reading books. That is not the case today. We can get our hands on many books within a fraction of second through digital device or acquire the printed books at your home from online book delivery services.

As an avid reader of books, I want to recommend some good tools which enables to you become an engaging book reader. Goodreads is a community for book readers, where people engage each other reading books, recommending books to a friend, form a network among book readers around the world and choose a good book based on the reviews, polls, surveys, suggestions, groups and recommendations of Goodread members. This is similar to book clubs of olden days. The next important tool among the book readers is Calibre, a good cataloguing software for their eBooks. This software enables the readers to organise their books into virtual libraries, editing, viewing and converting eBooks in the required format, syncing with many eBook readers available in the digital market.

Instilling the habit of reading books in children can reduce their habit of binge watching Television shows and thereby consequently enhance the children and young people mental health. Reading books among adults can thus reduce stress and provide a better way of living. Reading books enables adult reader to gain knowledge of other cultures, community and socio-political knowledge of other countries. Reading books among young children have proven to improve their knowledge, social interaction, relaxation, focus, mood regulation and vocabulary improvement. Reading books among Parents and child have proven to improve the relationship with their children and parenting knowledge. Reading books among adult people with health and special need have found to improve their stress, depression, self-efficacy, motivation and life longevity. Reading books is a popular activity to experience pleasure and empowerment at the same time but has its benefits in enhancing one’s mental health.