Reading is more than just about intellect. It is a habit that we ought to cultivate into the young ones and encourage them to take the practice with them throughout their life. There are plenty of reasons to keep reading well into your old age, and we explore them here. If you have shelved them, it’s time to bring out the books and get back to receiving the benefits below.
Before we continue, we suggest that you read traditional books. Research shows that screens slow reading by 20 to 30 percent.
It boosts brain power
Reading is cardio to the brain. When you read, you are improving your memory and brain function through engaging your brain even as age works to decrease them. Neurologist show is that when you read, your mind remains sharp for longer. As the temporal lobes, frontal lobes, angular, supramarginal gyrus, and white-matter pathways among others work together, and your mind gets the exercises it needs even from childhood.
You’ll be increasingly intelligent
We all love the feeling of knowing a lot of things. There is an appeal that everyone has when their parents or grandparents are sharing information that no one knew about. It is not just experience that makes for great life lessons. Pairing with facts or common knowledge makes for productive conversations that everyone is bound to remember. You can expand your vocabulary and be the most intelligent person in the room. For that, you ought to get back to reading.
Knowing better makes you do better
The categories of books available are near endless. Overall they increase your empathy because you have walked a mile in someone’s context albeit through a book. Reading books that have differing opinions of what you hold or about things you know nothing about change how you perceive the world. It also undoes biases and makes you more accommodating to others. It also breeds an appreciation of the combined human experience; reading about an insurance dispute lawyer and seeing some of your struggles in them is encouraging.
Fighting Alzheimer’s and other problems
As your mind does its exercises, it can slow down the degeneration of brain cells that bring about memory-related diseases. Inactivity is what accelerates Alzheimer’s and therefore keeping your mind active will slow down the progression. Equally, the fact that books help in relaxation is another reason to take up reading. Stress and old age are not good company, and thus having your stresses reduced by more than half is all the more reason to pick a book up.
