The Surprising Health Benefits of Reading a Book

This is your body on booksReading has an effect from a very young age, says Barbara Sahakian, an emeritus professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. and an author of the new paper. In one study of about 10,000 children in the U.S., she and her colleagues found that kids who started to read for pleasure early in life were better adjusted later, regardless of their socioeconomic background. “They had better cognition, they had reduced symptoms of mental-health problems, they had better attention,” she says. They also spent less time on screens, slept longer, and performed better in school.But reading for pleasure shouldn’t stop in childhood. Studies of adult reading habits show benefits as well. In the review, the authors note that readers often mention in surveys that they feel less lonely after they read. “‘It made me feel more connected to others. It made me understand other people's point of view better, and gave me more empathy.’ That comes up a lot in surveys,” Sahakian says. There are neuroimaging studies to back up that finding, she continues. “When you read fiction, particularly stories that are rich in social content, it activates areas...