Why reading is good for you

Aaah, reading: Not only is it fantastic to be completely carried away and surprised by a story, it turns out that the act of reading is also actually really good for you.

Because you are so carried away by what the characters in a book experience, your mind remains alert while, at the same time, you forget your own worries. Studies show that those  who read regularly experience less stress, sleep better and have more self-esteem.

What makes this even more special is the fact that the human brain was not made to read: we only started reading in the early nineteenth century. According to neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene of the Collège de France, we literally invented a new way to use our brains while reading. Dehaene believes that is a kind of craft that must have started several thousand years ago, when humans started to propose words based on their sounds.

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Source De Morgen (Dutch) Photography Thought Catalog/Unsplash.com