R
ead any good books recently?
Three-quarters of UK adults
say they’ve read a book for
pleasure in the past year,
according to a YouGov survey.
But there’s no doubt that reading as a
pastime is under threat from a long list of
21st-century excuses. You just can’t find
the time to read a book. You’re too stressed
to focus on page after page of words. It’s
so much easier – and tempting – to scroll
through social media instead. But did you
know that ditching books in favour of
digital browsing could be damaging your
brain power and reducing your creativity?
Don’t panic, though – the long, lazy days on
holiday provide the perfect opportunity to
stop scrolling and rediscover the joys of
reading and the health benefits it brings.
BOOST YOUR BRAIN
It’s probably no surprise to learn that reading can
improve your brain power. But that doesn’t mean
you have to pore over a science text book or
critically assess War and Peace: the very act of
reading, and so focusing on just one thing for
a length of time, is enough to produce positive
change. ‘A good book can rewire our brains and
prompt an increase in the number of neural
connections,’ says psychologist Dr Tony Lloyd.
‘This boost continues for some time after we stop
reading – a phenomenon researchers liken to the
muscle memory which comes into play when we
develop physical skills.’
There’s also strong evidence that being an avid
reader can help future-proof your memory power
so you reduce the risk of developing dementia.
Researchers at Chicago’s Rush University, for
example, tracked 294 older people over a six-year
period and found their cognitive skills were linked
to how often they read books, wrote letters and
visited a library. Again, it seems, our brains are like
muscles: if we don’t use them, we lose them.
LOSE THE SCREENS
So what about the threat to reading posed by the
lure of social media? Some experts argue that the
information age is serving up a diet of ‘junk food’
for the brain and gradually eroding our ability to
focus. Reading a book, on the other hand, may
go some way to counter this. ‘Differences in brain
activity do exist when comparing time spent
on screens with reading a book,’ says
Lloyd. ‘Both anecdotal evidence and
SUMMER
wellbeing