A Page a Day Keeps the Stress Away: Correlation Between Reading and Mental Health

July 27, 202

Whether you are a novice book lover or a seasoned bookworm, it’s no secret that there are MANY reasons why we pick up a book and lose ourselves in its pages. We read to smile, to cry, to laugh, to feel, to heal.

To heal.

People underestimate the healing power of books on the mind and the soul. Books are a place where we can visit new friends, where we can go on adventures and fall in love, where we can explore, where we can figuratively escape to a whole different world.

Escape.

Many of us sometimes want nothing more than to escape our day-to-day lives. Whether it’s a dead-end job or a rough patch in a relationship or financial woes or any other obstacle or stress in our lives, escape is a luxury many of us feel we can’t afford. But maybe that’s because we’re thinking of “escape” in terms of a literal escape, like a vacation or going off the grid until our problems magically disappear. Or we associate “escape” with money and time, both of which many of us may feel we already don’t have enough of to spare. What we may need, and what is often overlooked as an aid to mental health, is reading.

And we’re not talking about ignoring every responsibility we have and reading a book cover to cover, though you certainly could do that if you have the time. Just reading for half an hour every day, or even reading a chapter a day (if you can stop after just one), is already a step toward decreasing your stress levels, refocusing your mind, and giving yourself a chance to just breathe.

How does simply reading do all this though?

According to a study from 2009, reading reduced stress in participants by nearly 70 percent. In addition to decreasing general stress levels, reading has been shown to be an effective way to relax before bed, thus resulting in more quality sleep. Personally, my bedtime routine consists of trading in TikToks for a chapter or two of my current read. Ever since I made that switch, I’ve noticed that it’s easier for me to relax, fall asleep, and stay asleep.

Reading can also help ease the anxieties surrounding school for young children. By perusing books, children can learn new words, learn lessons and consequences based on characters’ actions and behaviors, begin to understand sentence structure and punctuation, and more. Similarly, reading can be one of the best things the aging population can do to increase their brain function and reduce the symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s.

There’s even a term for using reading as a means to improving mental health and reducing stress: bibliotherapy. With bibliotherapy, reading is a form of therapy, as the name implies. This includes finding, reading, and recommending all kinds of books, both fiction and nonfiction, that deal with anxiety, depression, grief, stress, and other areas of mental health.

Being a bibliotherapist isn’t an official job title, but it IS something that we can all do! We know our minds and our triggers better than anyone else. We know what problems we are facing and what types of language, characters, or plots may help us heal and understand our mental health better. Sometimes, healing and strengthening our mental health can be as easy as opening a book and reading the first line. The characters become our new friends, the lessons learned become advice for us, and the adventures we go on become our own experiences. By the time we reach the last page and close the book, we know we’re not closing the book forever because the contents of it will stick with us forever and help us grow. Escape. Heal.

Looking for books to help with your mental health? See the following book recommendations for some ideas:

The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama XIV, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Carlton Abrams (Nonfiction, Self-Help, Spirituality, Philosophy)
The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley (Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Contemporary Fiction)
the things I didn’t say in therapy by Logan Duane (Poetry, Nonfiction, Self-Help)
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (Fiction, Mental Health, Romance, Contemporary)
You’ll Come Back to Yourself by Michaela Angemeer (Poetry, Self-Help, Nonfiction, Romance)
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder (Nonfiction, Biography, Health, Biography Medical Memoir)
How it Feels to Float by Helena Fox (Young Adult, Mental Health, LGBT, Fiction)

Mosquitoland by David Arnold (Young Adult, Mental Health, Coming of Age, Realistic Fiction)
Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle (Nonfiction, Mental Health, Religion/Spirituality, Biography)