Read Into This: The Benefits Of Reading For Fun
Over winter break, I had the opportunity to do something I haven’t done in what feels like forever: sit down and read a book. It might sound dorky, but it had been months since I had time to read for fun. Reading has been one of my favorite hobbies since childhood, and I’ve always done my best to set aside some reading time no matter how busy I get. As I’m sure all college students can attest, it’s a lot harder to find time to keep up with old hobbies when you are busy balancing school, a social life, and extracurricular activities. Even if you do manage to score some down time, it’s so much easier to get in bed and watch Netflix or take a nap instead. After all, who want to read more after spending hours reading for school?
Last semester I justified myself by saying that my extensive school reading made up for my lack of recreational reading. Even if I did somehow find what I had to read interesting, the fact that I was required to do it made it less enjoyable and more stressful because there was the constant weight of taking notes and preparing for tests looming over my head. As it turns out, recreational reading benefits our well being in ways that required mandatory reading for work or school simply doesn’t. BOP Consulting did a study in the UK which demonstrated that reading for pleasure greatly improves mental health because it reduces stress, which in turn diminishes susceptibility to anxiety and depression. In addition, regular pleasure readers generally show fewer instances of dementia later in life than non-readers. Beyond mental health, the studies showed that there was a high correlation between routine readers and empathy, which means that people who read are purportedly more likely to be better connected to others.
These are all outstanding benefits, but can’t we all agree that it’s amazing enough to get lost in a story, something that you are truly passionate about? There’s nothing quite like it. It’s sad how easily such a wonderful, simple pleasure can slip away. I think that we can regain pleasure reading with minimal effort. Even if it’s only just for an hour or two a week, it wouldn’t be too hard to set apart some time to unwind by reading. It can be something as easy as bringing a book as you wait for you laundry to be done in the dryer or watching one less episode on your latest Netflix binge and reading instead. It’s a small change that will make a big difference in the long run.