You’ve probably heard that reading can be good for you. you may have heard it all your life. but reading may not be your thing.
Maybe you like to read, but have trouble understanding difficult material in your classes or your workplace.
You are reading: How can books change your life
good news: this article can help.
Here, we’ll discuss many of the benefits of reading and real practices you can try today to improve your reading comprehension.
why is reading so beneficial?
You’ve heard that reading is good, but what’s so special about it? why should you take the time to read? If you’ve been asking yourself those questions, here are five ways reading can significantly benefit your life.
1. reading helps with empathy
Empathy is an important character trait that people can develop. it helps us relate to other people and encourages us to be kind and considerate of others’ feelings.
It turns out that reading can actually help improve empathy.
When people read stories about other people’s lives, it helps them develop the skills to understand the world through another person’s perspective. this is a key element to be empathic with others.
One way reading accomplishes this is by improving something called “theory of mind.” theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states such as beliefs, intentions, desires, or emotions to others and to understand that other people have different beliefs, intentions, and desires than our own. When you read literary fiction, you are deepening your understanding of other people’s thoughts, emotions, and desires.
This understanding can be used in real life to try to understand and relate to other people, regardless of their background.
2. Reading reduces stress and helps you sleep
Life can be stressful, especially with busy or challenging work and school schedules. it’s hard to escape the feeling of stress and anxiety of a hectic lifestyle. Fortunately, reading can help reduce stress levels. Not only that, but it can also help you sleep better at night.
According to a study conducted by the University of Sussex, reading can reduce stress levels by up to 68%.
the telegraph quoted professor david lewis, the cognitive neuropsychologist who conducted the study, as saying: “it really doesn’t matter what book you read, by losing yourself in a completely fascinating book you can escape the worries and stress of the everyday world and spend a while exploring the realm of the author’s imagination…the printed page [can] stimulate your creativity and cause you to enter what is essentially an altered state of consciousness.”
In addition to reducing stress, reading can help you sleep better at night. Many people turn to technology before bed, but screens can keep you up at night and cause trouble sleeping. books, on the other hand, can help you sleep better. reading helps you relax and can signal to your body that it’s time to go to sleep.
3. reading increases your vocabulary
if you want to have an impressive vocabulary, pick up a book.
It is much easier to learn vocabulary from a book than to memorize words in the dictionary. that’s because you’re learning the words contextually. the words make sense within the context of what you are reading so that it is easier to remember later.
4. reading can help improve your mood
It may seem unlikely, but reading can make you feel happier. there are a variety of reasons why this is true.
according to researcher dr. Josie Billington of the Center for Research on Reading, Literature, and Society, “Reading reminds people of the activities or occupations they once did, or the knowledge and skills they still possess, helping to restore their sense of place. and a purpose in the world.”
As with stress relief, the transportive nature of reading can also take people away from things that annoy or frustrate them in their normal lives.
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not only that, but when we read, we learn that there are other people who are going through similar or equally difficult struggles as ours. it can help us combat feelings of isolation or loneliness.
Historically, reading has been used to help people through difficult times. During World War I, the United States War Library Service, an initiative begun with the Library of Congress, collected more than 700 million reading materials for the troops. the belief was that books could help troops heal from the trauma of war.
librarians noted that the books helped calm the troops and helped them begin their mental and emotional recovery. books and reading have the power to improve your mood and help you deal with difficult circumstances.
5. reading strengthens the brain
Another incredible benefit of reading is that it improves your brain!
When you read something, your neural pathways are activated. As you read, your brain must remember facts and details like characters, plots, and subplots. As your brain retains this information, it is creating new memories. that means new synapses are being created and old ones are being strengthened. this improves your short-term and long-term memory functions.
Seniors who engage in mental exercise, such as reading regularly, are 32% less likely to experience mental decline. In fact, a lifetime of reading can lower a person’s chances of developing Alzheimer’s.
how to improve your reading comprehension
Reading provides a lot of benefits, but what if you’re struggling with reading comprehension skills?
Many people confuse reading comprehension with retention. comprehension refers to understanding what you read. retention is remembering what you read.
however, reading comprehension and retention go hand in hand. if you don’t understand what you’re reading, it’s much harder to remember later.
So what can you do if you struggle with reading comprehension and want to improve your skills?
9 tips to improve reading comprehension
If you’re having trouble understanding what you’re reading or just want to improve your comprehension, here are nine tips to help you become a better reader.
1. read a text out loud
If you’re reading something particularly difficult to understand, it sometimes helps to read the text out loud. hearing the words instead of just reading internally can sometimes activate a different part of the brain and allow it to connect with the material.
2. ask questions before reading
Before you start reading a text, ask yourself a few pre-reading questions. Some examples of questions you could ask are: What is the topic of the material? what do you already know about the subject? Why is this material important?
You can also scan the text to get a basic idea of what it is about. you can quickly scan the title, headings, and first few sentences of the paragraph to get an idea of what the material is about.
Once you’ve done this, your brain is already working with the information. you have a base of what the topic is before you start going into details.
3. stop to reevaluate what you just read
Often when you read a lot of material, especially difficult texts, it’s easy to lose focus. you can read a whole page and not really understand any of it.
If you’ve read a section and you’re not really sure what you’re reading, go back and read it slowly. try to summarize what you have read. see if you can get the most important ideas and facts out of the text.
4. explain what you have read to someone else
Another great way to understand something you’re reading is to explain it to someone else. putting the information in your own words is a useful strategy for understanding the material.
if you can explain it well to someone else, you probably have a good idea of what you’ve read.
5. take notes
Another good strategy for reading comprehension is to take notes as you read. write down the most important information and focus on the main ideas.
This is similar to the idea of explaining it to another person. it gives your brain another means of interacting with information and a chance to put things into your own words.
This also provides a way to type questions or words you don’t understand. any word you don’t know you can look it up later.
6. give yourself a chance to understand the text
Sometimes people get stuck in a cycle of rereading the same sentence over and over again because it doesn’t make sense to them. try to avoid this strategy because you can often figure out the meaning of a section as you continue reading.
The context of the sentence can often give you a better understanding of the meaning.
7. use your finger or a pen to follow it
If you have difficulty concentrating on a section of the material, you can use your finger or a pen to continue reading. this is an easy way to stay on track and pay attention.
This “pointer method” can also help you read faster. If you don’t want to use a pen or your index finger, you can also use an index card to cover the part of the text you aren’t reading yet to keep you focused.
8. read at the right pace
You can adjust your reading speed to improve your comprehension. Find the main idea of the paragraph and read that sentence slowly. Usually, the first or second sentence of the paragraph lets you know what the rest of the paragraph is going to talk about.
Knowing how a paragraph is structured can be an advantage. look for the main idea and read that sentence more slowly. follow-up sentences are usually not as important as the main sentence. carefully understand the main idea and then you will be able to read the details more quickly.
if the material is long or technical, you may want to slow down at the beginning and end of the paragraph to help you understand it.
Remember, both reading too slowly and too quickly can affect your reading comprehension. don’t slow down or speed up too much at any point, but pay close attention to the main ideas.
9. take a break from reading
If you’re reading page after page but don’t understand any part of it, it might be time to take a break.
If the material is an assignment, try to break it up over several days. Some texts are more difficult to understand because they are full of words and ideas that you may not be familiar with. if this is the case, it can be helpful to give your brain a break to digest the new information.
Go get a book today!
Whether you do it for work or pleasure, reading can be extremely beneficial for your brain, your health, and your overall well-being. it can even make you more compassionate to the people around you.
To improve reading comprehension, remember to take your time to understand what you are reading. give yourself several days to digest difficult material and take breaks when you need to.
If you feel stressed about understanding a text, try the tips in this article. handy, easy-to-use tips can help you tackle that difficult task so you can get back to your favorite fiction.
grow in reading skills with a degree
Lifelong learning often encourages the activity of reading to explore and gain knowledge and skills that you can apply to your real world. with a degree program in professional school & graduate studies division, you can continue to improve your reading skills while focusing on practical application to your work and life. Learn more about how you can improve your reading skills by connecting with our enrollment team.
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