5 Main Benefits of Reading Before Bed

The past few decades have witnessed a sharp increase in the use and availability of electronic devices, like mobile phones, video game consoles, television, computers, tablets, and so forth. In today’s busy and stressful world, technological advancement improves people’s life with both positive and negative impacts.

As electronic media become more lightweight and portable, users can conveniently use these devices to read before sleep; young consumers prefer playing video games or watching movies on their tablets before bedtime. All these behaviors carried out close to sleep can potentially negatively influence their sleep, especially activities associated with electronic screens.

On the contrary, others are used to reading books before sleep, which helps them wind down quickly without external distractions, such as phone notifications. Reading does not make you sleepy, but it decentralizes the daytime troubles, making sleep easier.

Allowing yourself to immerse into the book world and escaping from electronic screens to have better sleep quality. Reading should be the best way to stop ruminating before bed. For instance, reading your favorite fiction or story books enable you to stop or prevent anxieties that may keep you up all night.

Therefore, reading before bedtime is one of the best ways to relax while also allowing you to gain knowledge and information. In this article, we will mainly discuss the benefits and advantages brought by reading books before bed.

The benefits of reading before bedtime

For a little while, give yourself over to reading. After you finish the exhausting work of the day and want to forget about all the workload and burdens, you can take 20 minutes or more to read a book in a cozy and warm bed. Make sure you leave your phones or tablets alone to avoid your mind wandering to work or other ongoing issues.

Add reading books as one of your bedtime routines, and it will improve your mental and physical health. Here are some benefits of reading before bed:

Stress Relief

In 2009, the University of Sussex conducted a study indicating that bedtime reading can reduce stress levels by up to 68%. (Lewis, D. 2009) Open an interesting book, and allow yourself to be invited into a literary world that distracts you from your daily stressors. 

Compared with other relaxation methods, such as listening to music or exercising, reading before bedtime works better and faster. Reading in bed requires a quiet and suitable environment, preparing you for sleeping. 

In order to quickly wind down, you can do as follows: before you immerse yourself into the book world, you could take a bath; put a mug of hot tea or beverage on your nightstand; turn on your reading light for bed with the comfortable amber light, and even the aroma diffuser. You can feel at ease in this peaceful and relaxing reading environment.

Then choose your favorite books; lie in bed and start to read! Reading books means you will fully engage in the mind and imagination; you can ignore or stop thinking about your daily stressors and finally feel relaxed.

Good for Mental Health

Activities that possess meditative qualities that enable people to focus on a single task entirely are proven to reduce stress and enhance relaxation. However, as one of these activities, reading can do more than reducing stress.

Reading before bedtime, you should pick some books like fiction or novels and read them for pleasure. Whenever you are reading, you are creating a new memory. Therefore you can exercise your memory muscles and improve mental acuity.

Reading allows your brain to keep active and lowers the mental aging rate in adults. Reading arouses multiple areas of your brain, including the left temporal cortex, which is connected with language receptivity. Plus, reading is also recommended for patients suffering from brain-related diseases.

Most importantly, reading immensely improves what is called the theory of mind. Theory of mind can be considered as something that can make human beings understand other people’s desires, beliefs, and intents of others. In other words, reading books gives us a chance to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. In fact, most people who have bedtime reading rituals tend to be more sympathetic than their bookless counterparts.

Deep & Critical Thinking

During your work in the daytime, you may need to spend a great deal of time skimming or scanning texts on your mobile phones, laptops, or tablets. But reading before bed might be a different reading experience since you don’t have to get it done as quickly as possible.

You can read every word and sentence precisely, and you can backtrack; reread those old passages with your fresh new knowledge; let your imaginations go wild without any disturbance.

Reading books before bed is a slow and thoughtful process, and getting lost in a book before bedtime truly is the ultimate form of relaxation.

Improved Literacy

Apart from those work archives or job-related text, reading before bed lets you absorb new information and expand your knowledge. There is no limit to book choices; you can choose fiction or non-fiction, as long as you are interested in them.

You can develop your writing skills; improve your spelling and grammar; increase your reading comprehension, or expand your vocabulary.

Moreover, you could gain various perspectives about the world from different authors all over the world. You get the chance to know their ways of living, and you may figure out the best way to solve your urgency based on what you find in the book.

Better Sleep

Phones, tablets, and laptops all emit blue light. Blue light is not an inherent issue during the daytime, as the sun emits blue light too. But when you try to read at night, you should avoid blue light because blue light can be harmful to your physical health.

Specifically, blue light can suppress the production of the sleep hormone melatonin and change your circadian rhythms, leading to potential long-term health problems. If you are used to reading eBooks before bed, the blue light might be the reason for your insomnia.

Many people doze off as they’re reading, especially when there is a book light with amber mode. Amber light can protect eyesight, prevent eyestrain and make your body produce more melatonin naturally. Since blue light can cause sleep interruptions and decrease sleep quality, reading print books with a suitable book reading light is your obvious choice.

If you are a regular nighttime bed-reader, the amber book light will be your best reading companion.

 

Reading Tips

A Good Book Reading Light

The environment is everything when reading. Books are quiet and peaceful; reading before bed requires a calm and comfortable environment. Let's skip those bright task lights or overhead lamps; they are too bright for reading at night and harmful for your eyes. 

Most readers prefer reading with the amber book light, which clips on your books with a lightweight. It offers the unique amber mode, emitting natural sunset light to protect your eyesight and prevent eye strain. Amber light can naturally stimulate your body to produce more melatonin, leading to better sleep. 

It's of vital importance to reading with suitable lighting, as opposed to fluorescent lighting. Then buy yourself a proper book reading light with various lighting effects to meet your reading needs. 

Proper Reading Posture

The key to improving your reading comfort is to find a proper reading posture that you can keep for a relatively long time. To avoid sore shoulder or back pain, you need to find a reading position that suits you the best. 

Back: Make sure your back muscles are supported in an ergonomic way, and your spine is in a safe position. For instance, pillows in your lower back will help support your back and spine.

Neck: Don’t bend your neck too much. Bring your books closer to your head instead of using the forward head posture. Because when you do so, this reading posture decreases the amount of oxygen that gets into your lungs, besides being harmful to the spine.

Eyes: You need to hold the books at a proper distance from your eyes while you can guarantee enough light emitted on your books. Don’t forget to pick the best reading light for bed to amplify your joy of reading.

     

 

Conclusion

Reading in bed before sleep with a decent book reading light helps you release stress and pressure. At the same time, you can gain new information and knowledge. Some prefer reading eBooks in bed due to the convenience. But print books don’t emit blue light and may give you better sleep quality. So why don’t you give it a try?

Imagine you are a regular bedtime reader; you deserve the best book reading light to have the best reading experience at night. You can check our blog post for more details if you don’t know how to choose the best book light .

Now you’ve known the benefits brought by reading before bedtime. Do you want to have a night of better sleep and absorb new knowledge? Adding reading books before sleep as your daily nighttime routine, you will have more achievements than expected. If you have any questions, please leave your comment below or feel free to contact us at service@glocusent.com