Why Is Reading Good for Students?

No one likes having to do something, and reading is no exception. The assigned reading can feel (understandably) like a chore impossible to enjoy.

If you lost interest in reading somewhere along the way, you can always rediscover it. Break away with that chore mindset; consider it an investment. After all, reading is beneficial for your mental and physical health, and it makes you a better learner.

How so? For one, reading can reduce stress levels by up to 68%, give your cognitive abilities a boost, and promote creative problem-solving. And these aren’t even all the benefits of reading for students! Let’s break them down — and make the case for turning reading into your new daily habit.

5 Mental Health Benefits of Reading Books

Wait, is reading good for your mental health? The answer is a resounding yes! Multiple studies have investigated its impact on cognition, emotional health, stress management, and even empathy. Here are the five key mental health benefits researchers have discovered.

Enhancing Cognitive Abilities

The fact that reading expands your vocabulary should come as no surprise. However, one study also found that reading regularly increases gray matter in the temporal cortex, thus improving cognition.

Improving Emotional Health

People who read fiction show better capacity for empathy, which means they’re more apt at recognizing emotions in others. Much like other types of entertainment, stories told in writing also allow you to experience strong emotions, positive or negative, in a safe environment.

Providing a Source of Entertainment

You might be surprised to see entertainment on the list of mental health benefits, but it is essential for leading a healthy, well-balanced life. Securing this vital entertainment is one of the key reading benefits. Engaging in entertaining activities triggers the release of dopamine, the “feel-good” neurotransmitter, in your brain.

Your brain needs dopamine to regulate mood, motivation, and even certain cognitive functions (e.g., learning). This hormone also powers the reward system in the human brain and is responsible for experiencing pleasure.

Relieving Stress

If you find it difficult to cope with stressful events, reading can take your mind off them. At the same time, the accompanying dopamine release will help you relax. Getting immersed in a story can also quite literally lower your heart rate and unclench your muscles.

Promoting Social Engagement

Finally, you can bond with others over reading. For example, you can join a book club, become a local library regular, or just chat away about your latest read online. Creating and maintaining social bonds is important: it increases longevity, staves off depression and cognitive decline, and promotes happiness.

Reading Is Good for Your Physical Health, Too

Yes, that’s right: some studies have shown that reading also has a positive impact on your physical health. While it can hardly be called a physically active pastime, the mental health benefits improve physical health. For example, students reading on the regular:

• Sleep better. Reduced stress correlates with higher quality sleep, and one study of college students showed a link between recreational reading and lower stress levels. That, in turn, helps you fall asleep more easily and stay asleep longer. However, opt for regular paperbacks since screens emit blue light.
• Have better posture. As long as you maintain good posture while reading, the activity can help you get used to it. So, a better posture will come more naturally to you. 
• Improve their sight. As counterintuitive as it may sound, reading can actually exercise your eye muscles, strengthening them in the long run. However, avoid reading digital books and take regular breaks (e.g., every 20 minutes).

10 Benefits of Reading All Students  Should Know

These mental and physical health benefits all come together to help you become a better learner and make studying easier. Here are the 10 benefits that highlight the importance of reading in education.

1. It Boosts Concentration

You might be tired of hearing that the attention span has plummeted over the decades. But if you don’t proactively train yourself to concentrate on something, a short attention span will pose a problem. Studying will be harder, retaining information will be more difficult, and your grades will suffer.

Reading requires focusing on the text in front of you, helping you get used to staying concentrated for long spans of time.

2. It Improves Your Memory

Overall, studies have shown that reading helps prevent cognitive decline in older adults and reduces the risk of dementia. One even demonstrated a link between reading and improvements in different types of memory (verbal working, episodic).

While the benefits for those at risk for dementia and Alzheimer’s are clear, people of any age can use reading to keep their memory engaged.

3. It Helps You Cope with Stress

Simply put, reading can be your escape from whatever stresses you out, effectively distracting you from it. Thanks to it, your body can take time to relax and recover, while your mind has time to compartmentalize.

In fact, reading can be even more effective at warding off stress than going for a walk or listening to music. The reason is simple: reading engages your mind, leaving no room for ruminating or overthinking.

4. It Promotes Analytical Skills

Ever tried to work out who the criminal was in a murder mystery novel? Or been amazed by how argumentation was laid out in a non-fiction book? If so, you know: reading can help you develop your analytical skills.

Reading thoughtfully is synonymous with evaluating arguments or information, creating your own reasoning, and identifying connections between events or concepts.

5. It Makes You a Better Writer

Reading builds vocabulary, develops language proficiency, and promotes reading comprehension. Over time, a larger vocabulary and familiarity with the written word will improve your ability to express your ideas, thoughts, and opinions.

That’s crucial, both in academia and beyond. These reading benefits, like a larger vocabulary and advanced writing skills, can boost your SAT scores, facilitate college admissions, and help you land job opportunities.

6. It Develops Imagination and Creativity

Reading is the ultimate exercise in imagination. With only words to build upon, it’s up to your mind to visualize the scene. And those words can describe something that has never even existed!

Besides exercising your imagination, reading also exposes you to new ideas, concepts, and opinions. (Yes, even if you read a popular sci-fi novel.) This exposure is a necessary precursor to creative thinking; it helps you keep an open mind.

7. It Promotes Critical Thinking

If you spend your time perusing non-fiction, you may find yourself dissecting the presented arguments or thinking about whether you agree with the expressed opinions or not. That’s the seed of critical thinking that reading can plant in your mind.

That said, fiction can also promote critical thinking. Consider unreliable narrator stories or murder mysteries. Unconsciously, you may attempt to solve the whodunit or separate truth from lies while reading.

8. It Engages the Brain

Your brain is a muscle (only in the metaphorical sense, of course). If you keep it engaged, the well-maintained neurological pathways will help you think faster, more clearly, and more soundly. Learning new material will come easier, and so will retaining and retrieving it. 

Reading promotes brain activity and, as mentioned above, increases the amount of gray matter in one of the cortexes. So, it literally helps you become smarter!

9. It Makes for a More Peaceful, Focused Life

As we touched on before, reading is demonstrably effective at lowering stress and enhancing sleep quality. Mental health professionals even created a special type of therapy that uses books: bibliotherapy. So, if your life gets too stressful sometimes, reading can help alleviate that stress.

Plus, reading teaches your brain to concentrate. You’ll find this especially helpful when it’s time to prepare for tests or work on long assignments.

10. It Teaches You to Express Yourself

We’ve already brought up the impact of reading on your writing skills, but your verbal communication abilities can also benefit from it. The reason is the same: a richer vocabulary means you can easily find the right words to convey a message. Exposure to different styles and tones of voice also adds more arrows to your quiver.

Verbal communication skills matter everywhere, from developing personal relationships to building a career.

But What If I Just Don’t Like Reading?

Not everyone is an avid reader, and it’s fine. That said, even if you don’t feel thrilled about the prospect of reading books benefits still can’t be overlooked.

Luckily, you don’t need to read for hours to reap those benefits. Just 15-20 minutes daily is beneficial. It’s also possible you just haven’t found the right kind of reading material for yourself.

If you want to start reading, even as just a way to keep your mind fit, here are several tips for turning it into a habit:

• Switch out spending time on your phone for reading once a day
• Create a reading routine: pick up a book before bedtime or during a coffee break
• Make sure to choose books that genuinely pique your curiosity
• Ask around to get recommendations on books worth reading
• Check out books written or recommended by the public figures you admire

In Closing

The importance of reading for students goes well beyond getting good grades for doing your homework. Immersing yourself in a book benefits your mental and physical health in a myriad of ways, from reducing stress to improving cognition. Plus, it builds your vocabulary and develops both written and verbal communication skills.

So, stop treating it like a chore and start considering it an investment. Plus, you can have fun doing it — don’t let anyone or anything convince you otherwise!

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