Reading for a long life

Reading books can extend your lifespan.

Do you read? By that I don’t mean do you look at text messages or check out Instagram posts. Rather, do you get yourself a book (not a Kindle, a paper book) and settle in for a session of reading on a regular basis. If you do, and perhaps feel guilt at the “wasted” time, then feel guilty no more because a new study shows that your time spent with a book is valuable as it may be prolonging your life.

The new study involved analysis of data gathered on 3,635 men and women aged 50 and older. At the beginning of the study all subjects reported their reading habits and then they were followed up over a period of 12 years. The results showed that adults who read books for up to 3.5 hours per week were 17 per cent less likely to die than those who did not read books during the 12 year follow up. The relationship was also found to be linear in that the more you read the greater the benefit. Those who read for more than 3.5 hours per week were 23 per cent less likely to die than those who did not read.

In all, book readers survived almost two years longer than non-book readers. Reading magazines and newspapers was also associated with a longer life but to a much lesser degree than book reading.

The results remained the same even when factors like sex, age, wealth, education, marital status and health were accounted for.

Reading certainly does confer benefits on the brain. In a study reported in this column it has been shown that fiction readers show greater empathy and reading books has been shown to enhance connectivity within the brain.

It might also be that people who make the time to stop and read also are better at things like time management and prioritisation.

Whatever the reason it is clear that settling down with a book is no waste of time, in fact it is a creator of time.

Source:  Social Science and Medicine